LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW 
LAND. Crown 8vo, $1.25. 

CALL TO CONFIRMATION. A Manual 
of Instruction for Candidates. Paper, 
12 cents net j cloth, 25 cents. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
New York 



IN THE 
HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



THE REV. C. ERNEST 'SMITH, M.A. 

RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS, 
BALTIMORE, MD.J EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE 
BISHOP OF MARYLAND 
AUTHOR OF "THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW LAND" 
"CALL TO CONFIRMATION," ETC. 



7 1395 



^3 3#3~£2^ 



NEW YORK 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

LONDON AND BOMBAY 
1896 




Copyright, 1895, by 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO 



TROW DIRECTORY 
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



TO THE 

RIGHT REV. WILLIAM PARET, D.D., LL.D. 

BISHOP OF MARYLAND 
AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF AFFECTION 
AND IN SINCERE ADMIRATION OF HIS EPISCOPAL WORK 
FROM ONE OF HIS CHAPLAINS 



PREFACE 



This book is not meant to be controversial It 
has not been my wish to point out the deficien- 
cies of other Christian bodies, nor to magnify the 
differences between us and them. My only de- 
sire has been to strengthen our own Church peo- 
ple in the faith of the Gospel. 

If necessary at any time it is certainly so in 
these days of multiplied activities within and 
without the Church of God. Quite recently the 
secular press noted the evangelistic labors of a 
Roman bishop in a place where " there is no 
[Roman] Catholic Church, and it is said not a 
[Roman] Catholic In the place." * 

I mean not in the least to take to task this good 
bishop, nor any others who would, like him, seek 
to make proselytes. They have a zeal for God, 

* Bishop Curtis, of Wilmington, Del., and Rev. Edward Mickle, of 
Cape Charles City, Va. , will give a four-days' mission in a hall at Onan- 
cock, Va., beginning February 18th. Bishop Curtis has been very ac- 
tive in establishing churches on the peninsula of Delaware. Maryland, 
and Virginia. There is no Catholic church in Onancock, and it is said 
not a Catholic in the place.— Baltimore Sid?, February, 1895. 



Vlll 



PREFACE 



but, nevertheless, a zeal, as I humbly believe, not 
according to knowledge. Believing this, I must, 
even at the risk of seeming to be uncharitable, 
tell Church people why they should cling closely 
to their Church, value her ministrations, love her 
for what she has been and is, and bring into her 
fold all, as many as they can ; for what I concede 
to others that I also claim. If it be thought an 
ungracious thing to deliver the message to one's 
own, to speak the truth whatever that truth may 
be, to be faithful to one's own convictions and 
one's own sense of duty— so let it be. I am con- 
tent to be in " the glorious company of the Apos- 
tles," and in the " goodly fellowship of the Proph- 
ets," who also, in their day, were adjudged to be 
unkind and uncharitable in their teachings. 

But yet I hail those, who are separated from us, 
as brethren. I am not so blind as to be unable to 
recognize and admire the holy and devoted lives 
of very many among those who are not one with 
us. I am sure that such were made members of 
the Church of Christ in their baptism. With 
gladness and reverence do I acknowledge in all 
their good works the operation of the Holy 
Spirit, and I truly believe that they are very 
dear to the heart of Him who is our common 



PREFACE 



ix 



Lord. I trust we have a fellowship in their 
prayers as they have in ours. 

Brethren ! Separated as we are now, we yet 
trust that we shall be some day forever united. 
Meanwhile, " My heart's desire and prayer to 
God for Israel is, that they might be saved.'' * 

* Rom. x. i. 



I. 

INTRODUCTORY 



I. 



INTRODUCTORY 

" The Moon above, the Church below, 
A wondrous race they run, 
But all their radiance, all their glow, 
Each borrows of its Sun." 

—The Christian Year, for the " Sunday 
called Septuagesima. " 

" You cannot put the Church too high for me, 
if you always keep the head above the body." 1 
In this saying of John Stewart, of Virginia, we 
have one of those "words of the wise," which 
" are as goads, and as nails fastened by the mas- 
ters of assemblies." 2 We need never wish for a 
clearer statement of that " union which is betwixt 
Christ and His Church." If we will but bear it 
in mind, we shall never forget that the Church 
" is subject unto Christ " 3 in everything ; and for- 
getting not this, we shall neither unduly magnify 

1 Recent Past, Bishop Wilmer, p. 90. 
2 Eccl. xii. 11. 3 Ephes. v. 24. 



4 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the Church as some do, nor depreciate her as do 
others. To us the full message of truth will 
always be " Concerning Christ and the Church." 

But between the Church as St. Paul knew her, 
and the Church as we know her now, there are 
two great differences. In St. Paul's time she was 
but small, and her members for the most part in- 
significant and untaught: "Not many wise men 
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many no- 
ble," 1 had been called into her ranks. Now she 
is in every land, and her children are all sorts and 
conditions of men. There has been a glorious 
change : " The little one has become a thousand, 
and the small one a strong nation." This is the 
first difference. Would that the other were like 
it! But it is not. The once compact, undivided 
body is no longer one and undivided. Strife has 
entered in. She is no more " one in faith and 
doctrine, one in charity." The seamless coat has 
been rent. This is the second great difference. 

And our joy at her onward march is saddened 
by the knowledge that Christ's own prayer for 
her unity — the unity that exists between Himself 
and His Father — yet tarries for its fulfilment. 

To some Christians this breach in her ranks 

1 1 Cor. i. 26. 



INTRODUCTORY 



5 



may not seem so great a calamity. We have even 
heard some of these speak of divisions as if they 
were an advantage to the Church. " What are 
you going to do/' such ask, " with organic unity 
when once obtained ? That unity may mean a 
great, motionless, powerless machine." And, with- 
out waiting for reply, they go on to tell us that, as 
" Diversity means life " in the natural world, and 
" uniformity death," so it is in the spiritual world. 
" Diverse organizations with diverse methods may 
mean the speediest way of ushering in the bright 
morning of millennial splendor." We do not 
share this rosy view. On the contrary, we are 
under the firm conviction that the greatest ob- 
stacle to the progress of Christianity is what the 
Prayer-Book calls " our unhappy divisions." 

God, we know, often brings good out of evil, 
and no doubt these very divisions have been pro- 
ductive of benefit. They have certainly not been 
altogether evil. Compensation has taken place, 
What has been lost in one way has, to some ex- 
tent, been regained in another. We see this in 
the unanimous consent given to the great central 
truths of Christianity by those who, in other 
ways, are far apart. We can happily look in vain 
for that Christian body which does not believe in 



6 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



one God, the Father, and in the one only begot- 
ten Son of God, who came into this world to die 
for man, and who after death rose again and as- 
cended into heaven. So, too, shall we seek in 
vain for those who deny that there is any Holy 
Ghost, any resurrection of the dead, or life of the 
world to come. So, too, shall we find none who 
maintain that repentance and faith are not neces- 
sary to Christian men, and that it is not indispen- 
sable for us to live sober, righteous, and godly lives. 
Yet, after all, these are the essentials of religion. 

Concerning methods of work and detail of wor- 
ship, the discipline and polity of the Church, 
almost every sect of Christians has its own theory, 
but here, at least, there is no discord. Unity reigns 
supreme, and all can sing with heart and voice, 

" We are not divided, 
All one body we." 

But this, as Mr. Gladstone justly observes, "is a 
marvellous concurrence evolved from the very 
heart of discord." 1 This, however, is what we 
mean by compensation, and a very remarkable 
instance of it. Christian dissensions have often 

1 Place of heresy and schism in the modern Christian Church. 
Nineteenth Century, August, 1894. 



INTRODUCTORY 



7 



driven men into indifference, or atheism, as they 
drove the Emperor Julian, but the sight of this 
striking harmony may well win them back. Thus, 
from that which has caused men to waver in the 
faith, comes the very antidote to revive it: the 
brazen serpent of our generation is seen curing 
those dying of the serpent's sting. It is thus that 
God is ever undoing Satan's work. Compensa- 
tion for loss is the order of His dealings with 
us. 

But again. There is another good. What com- 
petition has done in this practical workaday 
world, it has done in the spiritual Kingdom of 
God. It would be strange were it not so, for the 
citizens of the one are citizens of the other, and 
the Law-giver is the same in both. We ourselves 
can see that it has provoked to energy and zeal 
and to good works. Again and again in past days 
there has stolen the spirit of slumber into the 
Church, and she has grown weary in well-doing : 
but God, seeing her peril, has provoked her to 
jealousy by them that were no people, and by a 
foolish nation He hath angered her. 1 

We do not forget this. Yet we affirm that the 
spectacle of a disunited Church is Christendom's 

1 See Rom, x. 19 ; cf. Deut. xxxii. 21. 



8 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



"open sore/' and that schism is not and cannot 
be according to the will of God. 

We now, however, make a large claim on behalf 
of our Anglican, or as it is more commonly called, 
Episcopal Church. The signs of our times are 
teaching us that if ever there is to be a united 
Church again — one flock under one shepherd- 
it will be due to the work and influence of this 
Church. More and more do we find this belief 
spreading as the proofs are daily multiplying. 
Great hopes are centring upon her. We say this 
not boastfully. If ever boasting was excluded it 
is here. There is room for deep humility and for 
heartfelt thankfulness, but not for boasting. Man- 
ifestly she holds the keys. She cannot help doing 
so even if she would. Her position is unique. She 
only comes into contact with the great historic 
churches of the West and of the East, while she 
alone of historic churches is largely in sympathy 
with the work of those great bodies of Christians 
which are yet not so much divisions of the old 
Catholic, Apostolic Church, as churches established 
on a new basis. "What may be in store for her we 
know not. The hopes she is inspiring in the hearts 
of her children may never be realized. Upon an- 
other, God may design, to bestow the blessing of 



INTRODUCTORY 



9 



the peace-makers, but all signs point to her as the 
chosen instrument of that peace which will uplift 
the hearts of all who love the Lord Jesus in sin- 
cerity and in truth. When Archbishop Dionysius 
Latas, an archbishop of the Holy Eastern Church, 
was among us, addressing the great congregation 
gathered at the consecration of the Sixth Bishop 
of Massachusetts, he used these remarkable words : 
" All Christian churches will cast their eyes toward 
you in the future, when by the grace of God all 
take steps for the union of all the Christians under 
one authority and under one sceptre. In this hope 
I greet you as my brethren in Christ. I embrace 
your Church, this Church, as my Church." May 
the dear Lord speedily join in the bonds of a love 
which will never be dissolved those who are now 
separated from one another, and who are too often 
forgetful of the fact that they are all children of 
one Almighty Father, who reigns over and guards 
them all. 

The Church of which this is claimed must in- 
deed be unimpeachable in character, and in pos- 
session of extraordinary gifts. Is this the case? 
We believe that it is. There is, at any rate, no 
obstacle to a full and free inquiry as to whether 
it be so or not. This Church courts publicity. 



IO IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

She is willing to submit to the strictest examina- 
tion as to all she is or has been. 

Her first claim, then, is that she is a safe 
Church. Her records show beyond dispute that 
no human architect planned her palaces. " Her 
foundations are upon the holy hills," 1 for she is 
" built upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief 
Corner-stone." 2 We do not here imply, nor do 
we think it, that only within her fold is safety to 
be found. Even if an angel from heaven de- 
clared it, we could not believe that all the good 
and holy men who have lived and died outside 
her communion are separated from God's love, 
and unreached by the saving benefits of Christ's 
death. Such would be to us another gospel, a 
gospel inconsistent with God's love and the plain 
teaching of His word, as when He said : " Other 
sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them 
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, 
and there shall be one flock and one shepherd," 3 
Surely, too, it is still now as in the past : " He 
that is not against us is for us." 4 Here is the 
difference between us and our Roman Catholic 
brethren. They will not allow that outside of the 

] Ps. lxxxvii. i. 2 Ephes. ii. 20. 3 St. John x. 16. 4 Luke ix. 50. 



INTRODUCTORY 



pale of their Church is there any salvation, save 
perchance through "invincible ignorance." We 
shrink from such a thought. With us the love of 
God is greater than the Church of God. Nay, 
after all, what are Methodists or Presbyterians, 
Baptists or Congregationalists, but Christians, 
even as we ourselves ? Their baptism made them 
nothing less than members of Christ's Holy 
Catholic Church. Ah, then, if this be so, we may 
be asked, " What does it matter which Church ? " 
It matters much. It is not all a question of 
safety. That first, but some things come after. 
This Church is of all the churches the most help- 
ful, and has gifts to bestow which others have 
not. It is possible to cross the Atlantic in crafts 
small as the caravels of Columbus — the sport and 
plaything of every wave ; but we prefer to travel 
by those swift steamers which can more speedily 
bring us to the other side. And we who are voy- 
agers on life's ocean, an ocean which washes the 
shores of time and eternity, will' do well to ask 
how best we can accomplish the journey. 

Once, when Christ crossed the Lake of Gennes- 
aret, there were accompanying Him " other little 
ships." All, so far as we know, reached the other 
side in safety. We know Christ's boat did. But 



12 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



who would not have wished to be in the boat 
which carried the Master? True it is, that when 
the voyage of life is over, and we have entered 
the quiet haven where storms never rage, we 
shall find no party names. There none will care 
whether we were Churchmen or Baptists. There 
we shall be Christians only ; followers of the 
Lamb, redeemed by His blood. Yet if there is 
one way better, more helpful, safer than another, 
we shall surely, if we are w T ise, choose that one 
way before all others. 

And while we say this Church is such a means, 
let us also confess our belief, that in this we find 
the only justification for her existence in certain 
parts of our country ; in places where others were 
before her. On what ground did she enter there 
at the eleventh hour? Simply because she has 
that to offer which those have not. Others may 
have Christ's own approval, and be doing His 
work ; but she is Christ's bride — His body — and 
it is for this that all true churchmen would rejoice 
greatly if they could hear their separated breth- 
ren everywhere coming to their own beloved 
Mother and saying : " We will go with you, for we 
have heard that God is with you." 1 She is build- 

1 Zech. viii. 23. 



INTRODUCTORY 



13 



ing up, we believe, by her teaching and her sys- 
tem, the noblest type of Christian character ever 
seen on earth. In the vineyard of the Church 
are the fairest flowers grown. 

We speak in no proselyting spirit. Of prose- 
lyting, indeed, merely for the sake of gaining con- 
verts and swelling the numbers of the Church — 
we wish none of it. But we do earnestly desire 
to gain others for their sake — for their own souls' 
good, judged by her own claims, the Church 
may not be silent. Unless aggressive, she is but 
as the servant who buried his master's talent. 
She is as salt without savour. She has but a 
name to live. Claiming to have gifts from 
Heaven, she must tell men what she has received, 
whether they will hear or whether they will for- 
bear. 

, But what is the Episcopal Church that it should 
make so vast a claim ? Is it not the least of all 
the churches? By no means. The Episcopal 
Church is far from being a small one. But if it 
were, that would be no argument. We know what 
Bethlehem was to Judah and the whole world ; 
" But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be 
little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of 
thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be 



14 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been 
from of old, from everlasting." 1 But this Church 
is not small. On the contrary, she is mighty in the 
number of her members. There is, we know, no 
infallibility promised to mere numbers. A multi- 
tude may do evil. But whether men will hear or 
whether they will forbear, she is the largesrt church 
of English-speaking nations. She stands at the 
head of the list. She has 28,750,000 English- 
speaking members. The Methodists come next 
with 18,500,000; then the Roman Catholics with 
15,300,000; then the Presbyterians with 12,000,- 
000; then the Baptists with 8,180,000; and lastly, 
the Congregationalists with 6,ooo,ooo. 2 And this 
statement is more significant than it seems to be. 
English is destined to be the language of all the 
world. In Shakespeare's time used by five mill- 
ions of people, see what is its position to-day. 
Already it is native and dominant over one-fifth 
of the whole habitable globe. It is spoken all 
through North America and in the United King- 
dom ; in the West India Islands and in the islands 
of the Pacific. It is spoken from the Cape of Good 

1 Micah v. 2, 

2 Vide Whittaker's English Almanac. The Anglican Communion is 
a unit. The Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists are subdivided. 



INTRODUCTORY 



15 



Hope to the Zambezi River; throughout New 
Zealand and the Australian Continent. It is the 
language of the high seas, and of every maritime 
port of the world. It is the language of commer- 
cial life, and even of the international commerce 
of China and Japan. More than one-half of the 
world's newspapers are printed in it, and soon 
it will be the language of 260,000,000 in India. 
Now, of the millions using this tongue, the Epis- 
copal Church claims a number larger than any 
other church. While year by year the English 
language is becoming intelligible to new regions 
and divers peoples, surely then to the church 
using this language God has committed the gos- 
pel of His Kingdom. 

Three different classes of Christians may read 
these words: First, those who are Churchmen by 
birth or adoption ; next, those who are members 
of some other Christian body ; and lastly, those 
who "are members of no church." 

A word to each : 

To the Churchman we say, Love your church ; 
be proud of her; thank God that you are a 
Churchman. " The lines are fallen unto you in 
pleasant places ; yea, you have a goodly heritage." 1 

1 Ps. xvi. 6. 



16 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

To the members of other churches: 

Are you a Baptist ? We are indebted to your 
church for its insistence upon baptism as some- 
thing more than a mere rite or empty ceremony. 

Are you a Methodist ? We are indebted to yours 
for its insistence on personal religion. 

Are you a Congregationalist ? We are indebted 
to yours for its defence of the rights and powers 
of the congregation. 

Are you a Presbyterian ? We are indebted to 
yours for its noble stand for the rights of Pres- 
byters. 

Are you a Roman Catholic ? We are indebted 
to yours because she has been jealous for the 
honor of the bride of Christ. 

We have learned something from all. But still 
to all we say : " Yet show we unto you a more 
excellent way." 1 

We do not, of course, here contend that " the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States 
of America " is without faults. We are not in- 
deed blind to the fact that with her as with 
everything else that the hand of man touches, 
there are manifold imperfections — imperfections 
however which we would only too thankfully 
see removed. 

1 Cor. xii. 31. 



INTRODUCTORY 



17 



Yet we as frankly confess our belief that in no 
other church on earth is there to be found so 
much real aid to enable us to lead " a sober, right- 
eous, and godly life " as we find in her, nor so 
much which will day by day bind us closer unto 
Him who is always our only Lord and Saviour. 
With us, she is the King's daughter, " all glorious 
within." 

Now, finally, a word to those who have no 
church ties or pastoral obligations. You are 
afraid that you will get narrow if you tie yourself 
down to a particular church or congregation ? 
You think it best to go to all churches in turn, 
believing that there is good in all ? Forgive us 
if we say that this seems nothing less than the 
elevation of a fault into a virtue. Neglect of the 
pastoral relationship carries with it neglect of 
pastoral obligations and of pastoral duties. W e 
have in metaphor spoken of Christian people as 
voyagers on life's ocean. Let us go back to the 
metaphor again and say, that they who are with- 
out any church relationship seem to us like the 
drifting derelicts which, abandoned by their 
crews, are driven backward and forward over 
the wild wastes of waters until they go down be- 
neath them. In charge of no captain, showing 
2 



15 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

no lights, drifting under the influence of pass- 
ing wind or unseen tide, they are a menace to 
vessels in their track. Unite with some congre- 
gation. Take up some work for Christ. Catch 
the inspiration which comes from united effort, 
and you will never, never regret it ! 



II. 



GOD'S HOUSEHOLD 



II. 



GOD'S HOUSEHOLD 

" Awake and give the blind their sight, teach praises to the 
dumb, 

O Mother Church ! arise and shine, for lo ! thy Light is come ! 
Till all the faithful through the world, God's one-elected host, 
Shall welcome the outpouring of a brighter Pentecost ; 
And there shall be, and thou shalt see, throughout this earthly 
ball, 

One Church, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Lord of all" 
— Neale's " The Vigil of St. Peter." 

The revelation of the Church as a family ap- 
peals to our hearts. Its very simplicity is its 
beauty. It tells of familiar things ; of home and 
home life ; of kindly feeling and brotherly fel- 
lowship ; above all, of parents' watchful care and 
loving guardianship. Its word is that God is not 
only our God but our Father. 

The Church is thus a great family circle with 
its centre where 

" The One Almighty Father 
Reigns in love for evermore." 



22 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



This family life began at Jerusalem. From 
thence the Christian race sprang. To the Chris- 
tian no place on earth can be dearer. Jerusalem 
is not of the Jews only. Mother she is of the 
Church below ; type she is of the Church above. 
" For our brethren and companions' sakes, we 
will wish her prosperity. Yea, because of the 
house of the Lord our God we will seek to do 
her good." 1 

The members of this family are #//who have 
been baptized into the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The living 
now number some 400,000,000! Many of these 
may be, and often are, unworthy of their privi- 
leges ; others have gone out from the family, and 
having abandoned all outward and visible mem- 
bership, are living in open neglect of their plain- 
est duties ; yet they have not forfeited member- 
ship in this sacred household. Once a child, 
always a child. The Parable of the Prodigal Son 
has taught us this. The prodigal may forget his 
father, but his Father always remembers him. 

How great a body is this Church with its mill- 
ions of children scattered throughout the world ! 
How like in this to that mighty ocean which 

1 Ps. cxxii. 8. 



god's household 



23 



girdles the earth in its wide embrace — one undi- 
vided, surging mass — which is yet but millions of 
drops of water. Not only in this one respect, 
however, may we learn a lesson from the ocean. 
We speak of bays, and gulfs, and seas — what are 
these waters but portions of the same boundless 
sea? There is no real division and there is no 
essential difference. Chesapeake Bay is part of 
the Atlantic ; Drake's Bay is part of the Pacific: 
yet both alike are parts of the same whole. 

So it is with the Church ; here known by one 
name, there by another, it is the same every- 
where. It is God's Church ; it is God's family. 
Let us learn a lesson from civil affairs. In Amer- 
ica we have some sixty millions of citizens, every- 
one of whom is a member of the American fam- 
ily. Yet when we speak of these in reference to 
the States in which they dwell, it almost seems 
as if we were dealing with many nations. There 
are New Yorkers and Virginians ; Georgians 
and Californians, and some forty other divi- 
sions besides ; yet they are all one family in the 
land. The States which give them their names 
are but sisters in the one family which lives from 
Maine to California, and from the Northern Lakes 
to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. And the 



24 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Churches of England, of Russia, of Spain, of 
Greece, of Italy, and elsewhere are, in a similar 
way, but sisters too. They are as the States in 
the American Union ; as the seas and gulfs which 
form portions of the ocean. Not really different 
churches, they are parts of one body. Language 
barriers, racial differences, civil boundaries, geo- 
graphical divisions, and the like, have given them 
existence. But once called into being they have 
all received equal privileges, and have become 
equally responsible for the discharge of a com- 
mon work. So there is but one Church, that 
which sprang out of Judah. 

In the course of the centuries which have elapsed 
since the birth and early growth of the family, 
there has been a tendency on the part of 
one or more of the sisters to control the others, 
with the result that for mutual protection they 
have drawn closer to each other in efforts to 
withstand attempts at depriving them of indepen- 
dence. Owing to this and other causes, all na- 
tional churches have at last become consolidated 
into three groups. These are : 

(I) The Oriental, or Holy Orthodox; 
(II) The Latin, or Roman Catholic; 

(III) The Anglican, or Anglo-Catholic. 



god's household 



25 



THE ORIENTAL, OR HOLY ORTHODOX. 

The sisters forming this group are to be found 
in Russia, Greece, Austria, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, 
Palestine, and the East generally. There is their 
rightful home. There they have been ever since 
Christianity was first preached on earth. These 
sisters are the oldest of all. In their territory not 
only did Jewish Christianity take its rise, but 
Gentile also. Jerusalem, cradle of Jewish Chris- 
tianity, and Antioch, cradle of Gentile Christianity, 
are both alike seats of Archbishops of the Holy 
Eastern Church. It is the unspeakable privilege 
of this Church to show an unbroken succession of 
Bishops of Jerusalem from St. James the Just to 
the present day. Within the land occupied by 
these Eastern sisters all the great councils of the 
Church were held. It was in their language that 
the oracles of God in the New Testament were 
first given to men. The Holy Eastern Church 
has now 100,000,000 members and some three 
hundred bishops. 

THE LATIN, OR ROMAN CATHOLIC. 

The sister communities or churches which form 
this group are found in such countries as Italy, 



26 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Spain, and France. They are, alas, also to be 
found in territories rightly belonging to their 
Greek and Anglican sisters, as, e.g., here in the 
United States. But since they have no rig-lit to 
occupy those fields, they are simply guilty of 
creating strife by dividing the household against 
itself. 

There is one feature common to all the sisters 
of this group, which is unlike anything we see 
either in the Oriental or in the Anglican groups. 
They have practically given up all independence 
of thought and action, and have placed them- 
selves under the domination of their sister in 
Italy. In Apostolic days, as we have said, and for 
centuries after, even to this day, the family was 
under the government of bishops, who as leaders 
were fully responsible for the welfare of the work 
committed to their charge. One of these leaders 
in old time, Cyprian, himself a bishop, expresses 
this relationship well : " The Episcopate is one, 
and each bishop has a share in it." 

All this has been done away with in the Latin 
group. Bishops, of course, they have, for these 
are necessary to the very existence of any part of 
the Church ; yet they hold an anomalous posi- 
tion. They are merely the agents of one of their 



GOD'S HOUSEHOLD 



27 



own order. In his favor they have for the present 
abdicated their own proper functions of guiding 
and ruling the children of the family. In this, 
history repeats itself. Centuries ago, in Scotland 
and Ireland, there were communities of monks 
which were presided over by one of their own 
order as Abbot, among whom was often found a 
bishop ; not as the head of the community, but 
merely to ordain and confirm when called upon 
to do so, whose position therefore was very simi- 
lar to that of the bishops among the Moravians 
at the present day. The bishop's position in this 
group is very much akin to that. Hence we are 
not surprised to find that where the office is of 
little account it is held by large numbers. In 
Italy alone there are said to be 47 archbishops 
and 262 bishops! What more need we say to 
make it plain that these bishops, living, as they 
do, under the shadow of the Supreme Pontiff, 
have but the name of bishop left to them, all real 
power and influence having long since been taken 
away. 

THE AXGLO-CATHOLIC GROUP. 

The sisters which form this group may gener- 
ally be known by their use of the English tongue. 



28 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Spread abroad into all parts of the earth, they are 
principally found in Great Britain and in America. 
The children of these sister churches are the most 
progressive and the best educated among the 
nations. They number nearly 300 bishops, over 
31,000 clergy, and 60,000,000 to 70,000,000 of 
people. 

The churches in this group are not so closely 
allied to each other as those of the Latin group. 
They have kept their independence. There is, 
however, a strong family likeness, so that often 
one has been mistaken for the other, not always 
for its good. The Presbyterians in Scotland, in 
days gone by, sought to destroy the Church in 
that country, under the idea that they were de- 
stroying the Church of England, The present 
agitation against the Church in Wales proceeds 
largely from the mistaken idea that she is an alien 
Church, imported from England ; whereas she is 
in reality older than her English sister. Here too, 
in America, the belief that this Church was the 
same as that of England, once, for a while, cost 
her dear. In a sense she is the same, just as the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy are 
both alike parts of the same Atlantic Ocean. The 
methods of work, the standards of action, and 



god's household 



29 



forms of service, and even the origin of the 
American Church, may, however, all be exactly 
identical with that of her sister in England, but 
she is, notwithstanding, another sister in God's 
great Family. 

The differences which part these groups are of 
long standing. It is an old story, and we cannot 
go fully into it now. But this much we may say : 
that from an early time the sister in Italy sought 
to persuade the others that she was appointed the 
head of the family, and had received powers not 
given to any other. As far back as the time of a 
bishop named Victor, a.d. 196, who undertook 
to give orders to a bishop in the Greek Church, 
on the ground that his Church was superior, the 
trouble began. In Victor's case the whole Church 
promptly suppressed him, and for many years 
after no other Italian bishop was guilty of such 
presumption ; but later, a favorable opportunity 
arising, the Italian sister's claims were again set 
forward and enforced, until one after another the 
ancient churches fell under her control. 

The Church of England was one of these, yet 
only for a short time ; for she rose up in her 
might and threw off that yoke as unlawful. Since 
then the Italian Church has done her best to bring 



30 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the "lost" back to her, but all in vain. Some of 
her methods, however, are strikingly suggestive 
of the comedy wherein the wife, having turned 
her husband out of doors, sends word to him that 
if he will only return she will freely forgive him 
all. 

Of late, between some members of the Greek 
Church and our own, there has been a pleasing 
exchange of courtesies. One of our bishops was 
courteously invited by the Archbishop, the Patri- 
arch as he is termed, to celebrate the Holy Sacra- 
ment in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at 
Jerusalem. More recently still, at a late Conven- 
tion service in New York, the Greek Archbishop 
of Zante, the Most Reverend Dionysius Latas, 
was present and received the Holy Communion. 
Those who saw the venerable Archbishop, in his 
blue and purple vestments, kneeling in the midst 
of his brethren of another race and of another 
speech, were ready to shed tears of joy, as they 
recalled the words of the Psalmist : " Behold, how 
good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell 
together in unity." 1 

Later still, when the present Bishop of Massa- 
chusetts was consecrated to the Episcopate, the 

1 Ps. 133- 



god's household 



31 



same Archbishop joined in the Laying on of 
Hands, and on that memorable occasion, not in- 
deed the first, 1 the Anglo-Catholic and the Greek- 
Catholic streams of the Episcopate were virtually 
united. This man was a scholar: master of six 
languages ; a student first of the University of 
Athens, where he spent four years ; afterward of 
the universities of Berlin, Leipsic, and Strasburg, 
and finally of Oxford, he was one of those men 
whom the whole Church may well delight to 
honor. 

One question remains. Are the denominations 
which have come into existence in recent years 
members of this body — this Family of God? 
Some of them, and as we think rightly, say not. 
" We are not," said Dr. Long, a Baptist minister 
recently preaching in Baltimore, " an ancient his- 
toric Church. We are new. In that sense the 
Catholic Church has the better of us." This cor- 
dial recognition of facts is worth much, both to 
him who makes it, to those who hear it, and to the 
Church, whose ancient character is thus unequivo- 

1 Dean Stanley's footnote appended to an account of how, in 1871, the 
Greek Archbishop of Syra and Tenos took part in the consecration of 
two bishops in Westminster Abbey is inimitable : " It is interesting," 
he wrote, "to remember that this excellent person, not holding the 
double procession of the Holy Ghost, according to the Athanasian 
Creed, without doubt shall perish everlastingly ! " 



32 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

cally and voluntarily admitted. Similarly may 
we speak of other churches standing on the same 
footing; they too are new, not old. Although, 
let us repeat again, every baptized person is a 
member of the Family of God. 

Yet how then, if this be so, it may be asked, 
can we maintain that the youngest sister in any 
of these groups is old? It is, we reply, all a 
matter of historical continuity. When Christ 
breathed on his Apostles in Jerusalem, he kin- 
dled, so to speak, the sacred fire to burn till he 
should come again. The Apostles were as 
torches kindled at it. The Protestant Episcopal 
Church is no other than a tongue of that fire. 
Late in coming, it was no new light when it 
came. In the old tabernacle and in the later 
temple there was a fire ever burning. It is con- 
ceivable that the priests might from it have kin- 
dled several fires at different times and in differ- 
ent places. But it would have been all along the 
same fire — sacred fire. It is because the flame 
burning brightly here is traceable back to the 
original fire at Jerusalem, that our Church is old. 



III. 



THE BIRTH AND COMING OF AGE OF 
A NEW SISTER 



III. 



THE BIRTH AND COMING OF AGE OF 
A NEW SISTER 

" Late from this western shore that morning chased 
The deep and ancient night that threw its shroud 
O'er the green land of groves." 

—William Cullen Bryant. 

Had but the existence of this continent been 
known to the world some fifteen hundred years 
before it was, our Church might have had the 
honor of an Apostolic founder. When we remem- 
ber that the Apostles "went everywhere preach- 
ing the Word," we shall not think this at all 
improbable. On the contrary, we shall feel that 
some member of the Apostolic College would 
surely have paid a visit to this land. 

As it was, however, Apostolic Christianity came 
to the shores of Britain when Britain was thought 
to be "the utmost bound of the West/ 1 and there 
halted. Possibly some ardent missionary gazing 
over the Western Ocean, sighed sadly as he 



36 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



thought there were no more worlds to conquer. 
He did not know of this mighty continent which 
lay beyond the waters. And so it was reserved 
for the American Church to be, as St. Paul, "one 
born out of due time." So, also, it was reserved 
for her to be not a whit behind the very chiefest 
of those who were in Christ before her. 

When at last Christian men saw America, they 
gazed on a scene very similar to that which lay 
stretched before the eyes of the first missionaries 
to the remotest parts of Europe. Dense forests 
and a fertile soil were seen, awaiting the advent 
of a race higher than that of the natives in pos- 
session. Whence came these natives? In answer 
to this inquiry, a curious story is told of one Mor- 
gan Jones, a Welshman, which, it is said, points to 
the Welsh as " the rock whence they were hewn." 
Jones, with several of his companions, had been 
actually tied to the stake, to be tortured to death 
by the Tuscaroras, when he burst forth in prayer 
in his own native Welsh. That prayer saved his 
life. " The salvages did right well understand his 
speech," and they let him go ! The conduct of the 
Indians was doubtless owing to some other reason. 

But, whoever they were, they were not destitute 
of a belief in God. Vaguely they worshipped a 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 



37 



Great Spirit — whom, alas! they only ignorantly 
worshipped. 

The privilege of leading the natives to a knowl- 
edge of this Great Spirit was seized by the voy- 
agers who first reached these shores. These were 
not, however, what we understand as missionaries. 
Nor had they left their home in England to preach 
Christianity to the heathen. They were on busi- 
ness enterprises bent. But those were days when 
men did not keep religion and business apart. 
Rather did they remember Christ's words : " Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 

What an insight do we get into the ideas of 
those early traders and voyagers as we look at one 
of their simple bills of lading, so unlike the com- 
plicated and formidable-looking documents in use 
among ourselves! There we read that "the 
goods are shipped by the grace of God," in such- 
and-such a vessel, " sailing by God's grace;" and 
the document always concludes with the prayer: 
" And so God send the good ship to her desired 
port in safety. Amen." It may have been but a 
form, but at least it shows, if nothing more, that 
they were not ashamed of their religion. They 
openly claimed the protection and blessing of 



38 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



God. Such merchantmen, carrying with them 
one to be their minister in all holy things, were 
the first to proclaim in the Western world the 
Gospel of Peace. 

As lying nearest to the Old World, we should 
have thought that at some place along the eastern 
shore would have been found the first record of 
so notable an event, But it is not here that Ave 
find the first traces of their presence. For these 
we must go West. In Golden Gate Park, in the 
city of San Francisco, there stands a tall Celtic 
cross bearing on the east side this inscription : "A 
Memorial of the Service Held on the Shores of 
Drake's Bay, about St. John's Day, June 24, a.d. 
1579, by Francis Fletcher, Priest of the Church of 
England, Chaplain to Sir Francis Drake, Chroni- 
cler of the Service." On the west side the space 
is divided into four tablets, with the following in- 
scriptions cut in the stone: 1. "First Christian 
Service in the English Tongue on Our Coast;" 
2. "First Use of the Book of Common Prayer in 
Our Country;" 3. "One of the First Recorded 
Missionary Prayers in Our Country;" 4. " Soli 
Deo sit semper gloria!' 

It was not until August 13, 1587, nearly ten years 
afterward, that we hear of a similar service on this 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 39 



Eastern coast. A colony had settled on Roanoke 
Island, in North Carolina (then in Virginia), and 
there it was that not only were the first services 
held on the Atlantic seaboard, but the first re- 
corded baptism in the New World of a native 
convert took place. Twenty years after that bap- 
tism — in April, 1607 — on the southern shore of 
Chesapeake Bay, at a place afterward to be 
known to the world as Jamestown, the same 
Church whose prayers had been heard at Drake's 
Bay and Roanoke was formally settled in the 
land as " the Church of England in the Colonies." 
That settlement was the birth of the American 
sister in the family of God, which thus in the year 
of our Lord 1607 entered upon her life. At Smith- 
field, Isle of Wight County, Virginia, stands to-day 
the oldest church-building of our faith in America. 
Old St. Luke's Church, built there in 1632, and 
rich in memorials of the past, is with us yet. 

As we look around to-day in America, we see 
churches of many kinds, from that of Rome to 
that of the United Brethren. Where were they 
then? With one exception, they had either not 
come into existence at all, or so recently that 
they had no strength to undertake work in a new 
field. The various national churches of Europe 



4Q 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



were, of course, in existence, and anyone of them 
might have proved a rival. But the only likely 
one was the Spanish. Spain and England were 
the two competitors for the supremacy of the seas. 
But the Church of Spain had ample work in the 
West Indies and on the Southern Continent to tax 
all her energies ; and the Northern Continent fell, 
not only rightly, but of necessity, to the spiritual 
care and pastoral oversight of her Anglican sister. 

The English Church nobly undertook the 
charge. When Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1588, gave 
£100 " for the propagation of the Christian religion 
in Virginia," it was an earnest of what that Church 
would do. It was a true indication of the spirit 
which dwelt within her. She would do a mother's 
part. The Archbishop of Canterbury at once, on 
the daughter's behalf, called for a general collec- 
tion throughout the churches in his province, and 
bibles and prayer-books, communion plate and 
church vestments, money and men, were forthcom- 
ing in abundance. The Church gave of her best. 
Everything augured well for the future. Under 
godly, earnest, hard-working clergy, a fruitful har- 
vest seemed certain. 

But, sad to tell, after a while heavy clouds 
surged up over the horizon, and the light was 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 41 



darkened in the heavens. The Mother Church 
was assailed by fierce foes, and she had to take 
thought for herself. All through the seventeenth 
century her trials continued, and on under the 
heavy German kings in the eighteenth, until she 
reached the low-water mark of her religious and 
spiritual life. Under such circumstances, what 
could have been expected of her daughter abroad ? 
The features of the home-life were naturally re- 
produced. Indifference set in, and with it came 
"calm decay. " With the dying out of the old 
race of clergy, others had come who were but 
needy adventurers, and the cause seemed lost. 
Like priest, like people. The salt was losing its 
savor. 

But her greatest trial has not yet been told. 
She had not the Episcopate. Imagine it, ye who 
can— an Episcopal Church without the Episco- 
pate ! At first, in America, when there were 
"but a few of them, and they strangers in the 
land," it did not seem to matter so much that the 
nearest bishop was three thousand miles away ; 
but afterward, "when they multiplied exceed- 
ingly," and the years went by, the evils of their 
orphaned condition became more and more visible 
and more disastrous. Every now and then they 



42 



IX THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



would make strong efforts to secure the Episco- 
pate, but there was always the same result : no 
bishop came. Why was this ? What insuperable 
difficulties interposed? The ill-fated alliance be- 
tween the Church and Caesar was responsible for 
it all — for the strange spectacle of an Episcopal 
Church refusing the Episcopate to her own daugh- 
ter. For the worldly honors of a State Church, 
the mother had parted with her freedom. 

Church and State ! We link the words together, 
but the things are far apart. Their union is as 
unnatural as that of June and December. It is 
forgetfulness of Christ's proclamation : " My king- 
dom is not of this world." It is folly. Every 
attempt to unite the Church with this world, or to 
permit it to lean upon the world, has been attended 
sooner or later with disaster. Either the Church 
has suffered, as in France, or both Church and 
State, as in Italy. 

Yet, all the while, incomplete as was her organ, 
ization, she was still " the Church," and men always 
spoke of her as such. Soon, indeed, it would be 
different. Darker days were coming ; when even 
the empty title would be denied her. But as yet 
the worst had not come. That was only reached 
at our Revolution. Then the crash came, and she 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 



43 



appeared in the eyes of men no longer the Church 
of their land, but the Church of another land., and 
of America's foes. "What, therefore, could they 
do but cast her out? And cast her out they did. 
So that she who had been first of all became last 
of all. Then, for a while, bitter hatred and per- 
secution followed. Churchmen suffered as no 
other Christians in this land have ever suffered, 
until they might well have thought that the days 
of the Maccabees had returned. True, it was 
more as Tories than as Churchmen that they suf- 
fered : but they did suffer, all the same, and that 
for conscience' sake. Hardships, whipping, im- 
prisonment, confiscation, banishment, were the lot 
of many of the clergy, some of whom died under 
their sufferings, while their churches were given 
up to the fury of mobs and to devouring flames. 
The ruin of the Church seemed complete. 

There was destined to be one trial more before 
relief should come. She was between two stools. 
As if she had not suffered enough, the Mother 
Church across the sea, now looking upon her no 
longer as a daughter, cast her off. Thus, with all 
supplies stopped, and the hope of gaining the 
Episcopate farther than ever away, was ever a 
Church in a worse plight? Distrusted by those 



44 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



from whom she had come ; deprived, too, of the 
means of perpetuating her own existence, and 
scorned by those among whom she dwelt, her lot 
was indeed hard. She had, like the ship which 
carried St. Paul in the stormy Adriatic, fallen 
into a place where two seas met, with every pros- 
pect of being destroyed between them. 

But the darkest hour is just before dawn. To 
the poor, distracted, forlorn Church help came at 
last, and that— perhaps most naturally— from a 
Church which had been tried like herself. Hard 
by the state Church of England there was another 
Church, with a lineage as pure as hers, and more- 
over free from bondage. It was the Church of 
Scotland. To this Church, when all hope of 
success elsewhere had faded away, American 
Churchmen turned to crave the blessing they 
needed : 

Patriots informed with Apostolic light 

Were they, who, when their country had been freed, 

Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed, 

Fixed on the frame of Scotland's Church their sight, 

And strove with filial love to reunite 

What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed 

Of Christian unity, and won a meed 

Of praise from Heaven. 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 



45 



At last the tide had turned ; and at Aberdeen, in 
Scotland, on November 14, 1784, Samuel Seabury, 
of Connecticut, was made a bishop in the Church 
of God. Thus, 205 years after that service on the 
Pacific Coast, the Church in America became fully 
equipped. She was now a Church with seed within 
herself. That consecration was her coming of age. 
Henceforward she needed help from none. All 
her bishops, if so she had willed, might have de- 
rived valid consecration from Bishop Seabury 
alone. 

Looking forward to the future, the Church in 
Maryland had met the year before and had organ- 
ized under the title she still bears — " The Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church." But for a little while she 
refrained from exercising her rights. Three 
more priests of the American Church were soon 
to seek the Episcopate abroad. For this Church 
has always been obedient to the ancient canons, 
which provide that not less than three bishops 
shall take part in every consecration. These 
three priests were : William White, to be Bishop 
of Pennsylvania, Samuel Provoost, to be Bishop 
of New York, both of whom were consecrated in 
Lambeth Palace on February 4, 1787; and James 
Madison, September 19, 1790, to be Bishop of 



46 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Virginia— the last American bishop to be conse- 
crated outside the limits of the United States. 

On September 17, 1792, Thomas John Claggett 
was consecrated in this country to be the first 
Bishop of Maryland, and to him belongs the 
honor of being the first bishop consecrated on 
American soil. In him the Scotch and English 
lines of succession were united, all four of the 
American bishops joining together in the service. 
But even before that, in the General Convention 
which met at Philadelphia in 1789, the scattered 
fragments of the Church were brought together 
and welded into one harmonious whole. 

This was the magnificent consummation of past 
struggles. Phoenix-like, our Church had arisen 
from her ashes, and a glorious future began to 
open before her. 

When Boccaccio's Jew returned from Rome he 
asked for baptism, on the ground that no Church 
which was not divine could survive such gross 
corruptions as he had seen. In the same way, if 
men will only read the history of this Church of 
ours, and contrast it to-day with what it was 
about one hundred years ago, they may well say : 
" This is surely a Church built upon the founda- 
tions of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 47 



Christ Himself as the corner-stone : this is indeed 
a sister in the Family of God. A Church not di- 
vine could not have survived : she must have per- 
ished — ay, and ought to have perished ! " 

Think of it ! Our Church to-day has fourscore 
bishops and over 4,000 clergy, and is once more 
The Church. Of the future we have no fears, 
when we remember how magnificently she has 
come forth out of the dangers and trials of the 
past. 

More in detail, we may show that its strength 
at the beginning of 1895 was as follows : Total 
number of clergymen, 4,323 ; organized parishes 
and missions, 4,870 ; present number of communi- 
cants, 580,507— an increase of 17,429 over the pre- 
vious year. In the Sunday-schools there are 44,- 
335 teachers and 400,566 scholars, while in the 
parochial schools there are 619 teachers and 7,995 
scholars. During the year there were 60,317 
baptisms and 42,385 confirmations. There are 
sixty-eight institutions, seven of which are under 
the direction of the General Convention, not in- 
cluding four celibate orders for men, twenty-two 
sisterhoods, and five schools or communities for 
deaconesses. 

But these figures tell little of what the Church 



48 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



has really been doing. It is by reference to in- 
dividual dioceses that we can appreciate it better. 
Take, for example, Maine. It is anything but a 
favored diocese : there has been no immigration 
to speak of; yet hear what the present Bishop 
has to say : " I accepted and went to Maine, and 
found a diocese of but eighteen parishes, only 
seven of which were self-supporting, and having 
in all 1,600 communicants/' This was 28 years 
ago. That diocese has now thirty-five clergy and 
3,364 communicants. Behold how God has pros- 
pered her ! And not her alone. Similar advance 
and increasing strength is the record of all our 
dioceses. 

" We can best," says a bishop 1 still living, 
speaking of the growth of the whole Church, " ap- 
preciate the present by contrasting it with the 
past. In the year 18 16 the youngest Episcopal 
church in Rhode Island was ninety-four years old, 
not a new parish having been formed since the 
year 1722. At the time of my ordination— in 1836 
—we had only 763 clergy and 590 churches." Thus 
in one man's lifetime has our Church made herself 
known and felt throughout our whole land. 

The old Church is thus seen to be coming to 

1 Bishop Clark. 



COMING OF AGE OF A NEW SISTER 49 



the front and taking her rightful place. For she 
was here before the Constitution of 1788-89. 

It is one hundred and thirty years since Charles 
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed the land for 
two hundred and forty-four miles west from the 
Delaware River, and ran what is now known as 
"Mason and Dixon's Line/' between Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. This line, 
often thought to be connected with slavery, was 
in reality the boundary between Lord Baltimore's 
grant and the grant made to William Penn. The 
work was begun in 1763, and occupied several 
years. Through the country— here a wilderness, 
and there rocky and mountainous — the mystic 
line ran. At intervals of a mile, a stone not un- 
like an ordinary milestone was set up. Every 
fifth stone was a " crown-stone " — so called be- 
cause on one side of the stone was the coat-of- 
arms of Penn, and on the other of Baltimore. But 
above the arms of Baltimore was the coronet of 
his nobility. Long these stones were hidden in 
the brushwood of the forest. At last 
" The white man swung the axe 
Beside them — signal of a mighty change." 

The land was cleared, and the stones were laid 
bare to tell their own story. Then were seen the 
4 



SO IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

arms of Penn and of Calvert surmounted by the 
baron's coronet. 

So the old Church— no longer hidden away— 
stands in the light, binding two nations into one 
spiritual union. On the one side are the arms of 
America, on the other the arms of England, and 
over all, as a distinctive mark, that which sepa- 
rates it from those out of the fold— the crown of 
spiritual nobility, 



IV. 

THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



IV. 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 

" If there be prophets on whose spirits rest 
Past things, revealed like future, they can tell 
What powers, presiding o'er the sacred well 
Of Christian faith, this savage island blessed 
With its first bounty. Wandering through the West, 
Did holy Paul a while in Britain dwell, 
And call the fountain forth by miracle, 
And with dread signs the nascent stream invest ? 
Or He, whose bonds dropped off, whose prison doors 
Flew open, by an Angel's voice unbarred? 
Or some of humbler name, to these wild shores 
Storm-driven ; who, having seen the cup of woe 
Pass from their Master, sojourned here to guard 
The precious current they had taught to flow? " 

— Wordsworth. 

These lines are the conjectures of the poet as 
he meditated on the beginnings of the Church in 
Britain. Who first preached Christ there ? Was 
St. Paul or Joseph of Arimathea, or Simon Zelo- 
tes, or Simon Peter, James the Son of Zebedee, or 



54 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Aristobulus, of whom St. Paul speaks in Rom. 
xvi. io, Britain's Evangelist and Saint? We can- 
not tell; all have been claimed. Not, indeed, 
that the British Christians are worse off in this 
respect than the Christians of other Churches. 
Can they of Gaul and Spain, or even of imperial 
Rome herself, tell us the true story of the first 
coming of Christian men? Traditions, myths, 
legends, like the fairy-tales which charm our chil- 
dren, those there are in abundance ; but who, we 
hopelessly ask at this late day, can separate the 
chaff from the wheat, or assure us with authority 
that it is not all chaff which the wind of truth will 
scatter away from the face of the earth ? Some 
day we shall know ; for, " as unknown, and yet 
well known; as dead, and behold, they live." 1 
Meanwhile we can honor their memory, and hear 
them, though dead, yet speak again. We some- 
what wonder this has not been done ; for to do 
honor to unknown benefactors is not a new or 
strange idea. W e have but to look around us to 
see such memorials everywhere. There is Mary- 
land's tribute to her heroic dead, commemorating 
those who in Revolutionary times saved the Car- 
olinas. Another there is in the little town of 

Vii. Cor. 6,9. 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



55 



Gettysburg, where during the civil war 200,000 
men fought in a three days' death-struggle. The 
black smoke of war has rolled away forever, but 
a silent witness to the dread nature of the conflict 
stands in the midst of the slain. It is the Na- 
tional Memorial Monument bearing this inscrip- 
tion : "TO THE UNKNOWN DEAD." At 
Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock, in Vir- 
ginia, not one, but many thousand headstones 
bear a like inscription. 

How grateful a deed it would be, and how in- 
structive, if the Church in Britain should set up 
stones for a memorial " To her Unknown Foun- 
ders," and call it Britain's tribute to the Saintly 
Dead. They are worthy of it. True soldiers of 
the Cross were they, who, for the honor of their 
Lord, and for the souls of men, fought their fight 
and finished their course. We say again that we 
wonder this has not been done before. There 
are in some of the old Parish Churches across 
the Atlantic, lists of all the Rectors who have 
within their venerable walls exercised their min- 
istry. They are set up, " plain for all folk to see." 
The names reach back to Norman times, and even 
farther still, to the times of the Danes and Saxons. 
We know the story they teach. They proclaim 



56 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the unbroken chain— the historical continuity — 
which connects the first of the names with the 
last. That is well. But a memorial raised by 
the spiritual children of the first builders, not of 
this particular temple nor of that, but of the great 
spiritual temple of British Christianity, would be 
better; it would be the noblest memorial ever 
set up in Britain ; and by it, though dead, they 
would speak : 

O Church of our fathers in England, 

O home of the Living Lord, 
Full fountain of faith for ages, 

And witness firm to the Word ! 
From Alban, Augustine, and Aidan, 

Paulinus, and Cuthbert, and Bede, 
To our days, even ours, what armies 

Of Christ his long triumph lead ! 

Saints, known to him only in heaven, 

Or famed in their own despite ; 
Or spending and spent for others, 

Or crown 'd with the martyr-light ; 
Of whom the world was not worthy, 

Who counted earth's riches as dross ; 
They are resting in God's own acre, 

Their bed neath the Savin?- Cross. 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



57 



The sin-defaced offspring of Adam, 

While centuries onward glide, 
Have grown in the field of England ; 

The tares with the wheat beside ; 
O visible fold of the Shepherd, 

How oft in his sorrow surveyed, 
As the myriad snares of Satan 

His cause have again betrayed ! 

The history of Christianity In that land, like 
the history of Christianity everywhere else, falls 
into two distinct periods: One extending from 
the first preaching of the Gospel to the formation 
of a church as the Church of the land ; the birth 
of a sister in the Royal Family. The other ex- 
tending from that time onward, a period of sub- 
sequent growth and development. The first was 
the era of Missions, the beginnings of the Church 
—her birth and infancy we have called it ;— the 
second, when, having come of age, a National 
Church entered upon her mature and indepen- 
dent life. 

Now, what clo we actually know of her birth 
and earlier life ? We answer : Nothing with cer- 
tainty. When we first hear a witness speak 
whose evidence all receive, Christianity had won 
its brightest triumphs. This witness is Tertul- 



58 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



lian, who makes the statement that " even those 
parts of Britain hitherto inaccessible to Roman 
arms, had been subdued by the Gospel of Christ/' 
These words were probably written just as the 
second century was closing. Origen, half a cen- 
tury later, writes, " the power of God our Saviour 
is even with those in Britain, who are divided 
from our world." From this time onward we be- 
gin to know more. Soon Britain has a settled 
Episcopate ; for in a.d. 314 we find three British 
Bishops sitting as members of a Council meeting 
in France, then called Gaul. A century later, 
persecutions arise, and pagan rule follows ; then 
the dark page of history becomes unreadable. 
But persecuted, the infant Church is not de- 
stroyed ; cast down, she is not forsaken ; her can- 
dlestick is not removed. She lives on, for she is 
destined to become a mighty power in the land : 
a true National Church which the Lord founded, 
and not man. 

Yet all this was centuries before the year 597, 
memorable as the year of Augustine's arrival. 
How perverse an error, then, that Britain received 
her Christianity from Rome, when actually, within 
less than a quarter of a mile from where the first 
Roman missionary found a home, there stood a 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



59 



little church in which worshipped the Christian 
Queen Bertha, having for her pastor a bishop of 
the Gallic Church ! We do not undervalue Au- 
gustine's services, but we are not willing to ex- 
aggerate them. To another even more than to 
himself do we owe his coming at all ; for it was 
simple obedience to a command of his superior 
which took him to Britain. In Gregory the 
Great, Augustine had a master like that French 
Bishop who said, " My clergy are a regiment ; 
when I say, 'March!' they march." Gregory 
bade Augustine go forth and preach the Gospel 
to the kinsmen of the little boys whom he had 
seen for sale in Rome, and Augustine went. To 
his credit, he remained ; for he might have re- 
turned to tell that the field was occupied. Britain, 
indeed, was not altogether the heathen land the 
good Gregory thought it. In Southern Britain, 
as we have seen, a Gallic bishop lived ; in the 
West, several bishops, with an archbishop at their 
head, held possession of the land ; in the North 
the Scottish Church was vigorously pushing its 
missions southward. For a century before and 
for two centuries after Augustine's arrival the 
old British Church was sending forth missionaries 
to the heathen — Killian to Bavaria, Willibrod to 



6o 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the country of the Franks, Siegfried to Sweden ; 
above all, Boniface, from his native Devonshire, to 
find, as the Apostle of Germany, ample work and 
a martyr's crown among the German people. 

Thus easily might Augustine have withdrawn 
from the work. But the harvest was great and 
the laborers few, and he remained. A true mis- 
sionary bishop, he never saw his home again. 
Settling down almost within sight of the sea 
which washed the shores of his beloved Italy, he 
preached Christ to the pagan invaders of that 
part of Britain. He was the first Archbishop of 
Canterbury. As such we honor him. But Can- 
terbury then meant only Kent, as the epitaph cut 
in the stone under which he slept abundantly 
proves : " Here rests Augustine, first Lord Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, who formerly directed 
hither by the Blessed Gregory, Pontiff of the City 
of Rome, and sustained by God in the working of 
miracles, brought over King sEdilbert and his na- 
tion from the worship of idols to the faith of 
Christ, and having completed the days of his of- 
fice in peace, deceased on the seventh day of the 
Kalends of June, in the same King's reign." 1 

Those were, properly speaking, only the days 

1 Bede ii., Chap. III., page 115. 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



61 



of mission-work, when no Church existed. One 
hundred years hence some Japanese ecclesiasti- 
cal historian may trace the footsteps of English or 
American or Roman missionaries in Japan, but he 
will not speak of there having been a National 
Japanese Church. In a similar way England, for 
nearly seven centuries, was the field of several 
missionary bands, representing different Churches. 
It was not until these were united together that 
a native Church was a possibility. When these 
scattered forces were united, a Church in Eng- 
land and of England was the result, and the first 
period of Christian history had run its course, 
and the second had dawned. 

The second period begins in the year 673, 
That was a notable year for England. Un- 
der Archbishop Theodore, who had become by 
mutual consent Primate of All England, this 
grand result was achieved. At a Council held at 
Hertford all the missions were united, and the 
Church of the Nation entered upon her separate 
and independent existence. Then all divergent 
parties, all diverse customs, were harmonized. 
That Council gave a new Church to Christendom. 

In the course of the ages which followed she 
has had a checkered career. At one time she 



62 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



even lay under the power of the Papacy and be- 
came corrupt and ready to die. At another, she 
was 'the bond-slave of the State. Wonderful, 
however, notwithstanding all, has been her 
growth. When the Council of Hertford was held 
there were but five bishops and one archbishop 
ministering to a few thousands of people. To- 
day there are two archbishops and fifty-four 
bishops bearing rule over 21,000 clergy and min- 
istering to 29,000,000 people, scattered through- 
out 14,000 parishes. This is a mighty change. 
Yet it is not all. Wholly insufficient will our 
estimate be if we do not take into account those 
daughter Churches in the colonies of Great Brit- 
ain which are rising up and calling her blessed as 
the mother of them all. 

More than thirteen hundred years have brought 
their sweeping changes since Augustine was laid 
to his rest as Bishop of the Kentish people. How 
great those changes have been the epitaph on the 
tomb of Archbishop Tait will show: " The one 
great aim of his life was to make the Church of 
England more truly the Church of the People." 
The difference is great. The one shows Au- 
gustine as a Kentish bishop, the other Archi- 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



63 



bald Campbell Tait as the Primate of All Eng- 
land. 

After all, statistics tell but little. We cannot 
measure the influence exerted by the Church. 
She has been as leaven which a woman took 
and hid in three measures of meal till the whole 
was leavened. 1 Among other influences we 
mention one particularly. As individuals have 
gifts, so have churches. It has been her peculiar 
gift to mould the home-life of her people as no 
other Church has ever done. Great as her in- 
fluence has been elsewhere, it has been greatest 
in the home-circle. There has been her throne, 
She is emphatically a Church of the hearthstone, 
training whole households in the fear of the 
Lord. And this has been directly the result of 
her system. Her clergy, unlike the clergy of 
most of the National Churches of Europe, have 
been, as husbands and fathers, capable of becom- 
ing, with their families, wholesome examples 
and patterns to the flock of Christ. The lovely 
sight of families dwelling together in unity, knit 
in sweetest bonds of love, which forms no incon- 
siderable part of the charm of English social 
life, has largely drawn its inspiration from the 

J Matt. xiii. 33. 



64 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



family life at the rectory or vicarage. Here, most 
of all, is her wisdom manifest. They who. as 
God's embassadors, have spoken to Englishmen 
for generations past of holy living and holy dying, 
have not been celibates or anchorites: they who 
have been called to comfort the bereaved of wife 
or child have been the better able to enter into 
the heart-sorrows of their people, for they them- 
selves, in like manner, have been tried. Here 
has been one source of her great power. She has 
been a Church of the people and for the people 
—in the truest sense a National Church. 

With the best educated men in Europe as her 
clergy— Anglicanus dents stupor mundi— (the An- 
glican Clergyman the wonder of the world ) 3 as the 
phrase went in the time of Charles II., when divines 
from the continent flocked to England to learn the 
art of preaching, it is reasonable that she should 
commend herself to an educated people. The high- 
est hail her as Mother, yet she is mindful of the 
lowest. At this moment she is educating a mill- 
ion more of the children of the poor in her schools 
than the State itself! Where is there another 
Church with such a record ? We can find none. 

This is no panegyric on that Church. We are 
not blind to her faults. We name one she has 



THE SISTER IN ENGLAND 



65 



arising out of her very strength, out of her con- 
servatism, and it is this; an unwillingness to de- 
part out of old paths and to seize new ideas. She 
has never in the past known exactly what to do 
with enthusiasm. Because of this she lost Wesley 
and the Methodists; because of this she was not 
the church of Milton and Bunvan, of Georsre Fox 
and Richard Baxter. But she is wiser now, and 
conservative though she remains, she gives her 
benediction to all who loyally give her their help. 

But whatever else we may say, whatever else 
we may think, this one fact will, we believe, be 
clear : This Church is not new, but old ; a Church 
for whose origin we look into the dim and misty 
past. Some things, we admit, are none the better 
for being old. We do not prize our shoes or our 
clothing the more because they are old. Old 
bridges, old boats, old machinery, have no special 
charms for us. But in some cases we do value 
the old more than the new. Old friends are to 
be preferred to new ones. The new may prove 
just as helpful, just as valuable, just as reliable. 
But we do not know that they will. They are 
like Saul's armor in David's hands : they are not 
proved. So also we prefer an old Church. A 
new one may be perfectly safe, but we do not 
5 



66 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



know it, and in this matter we wish for certainty. 
We have been at pains to show that the Church 
across the seas, at one time our Mother, and since 
our Sister, was not a creation of Parliament, either 
in the sixteenth century or at any other time. 
Our Church here springs from the same stock. 
Thus it is that freely bishops and clergy pass over 
to England and take an official part in the ser- 
vices of the cathedrals and churches there. So, 
too, the clergy of that church come here and are 
at once recognized as brethren. We know no 
difference. We believe in the fellowship of saints. 
In Christ we are all united. With perfect inde- 
pendence of action, each Church is free to act for 
herself. But a deep bond of sympathy, deeper 
than sentiment, and cordial respect links us to- 
gether. We are brethren in the Lord ; members 
of the same Church, partakers of the same holy 
calling. We extend our hands across the waste 
of waters and exchange our greetings, and we 
recognize in those who throng her ancient temples 
of prayer, fellow-workers in the same spiritual 
temple we are building here. They are engaged 
on one part of the wall, we on another. They 
and we are alike members of the great family of 
God, children in the Household of Faith. 



V. 

THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



V. 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 

44 They've robbed thee of thine altars, 
They've ta'en thine ancient name ; 
But thou'rt the Church of Scotland 
Till Scotland melts in flame." 

— COXE. 

The indictment is a heavy one ; would that it 
were not true. Doubtless the Presbyterian body, 
which has possession of what was once the patri- 
mony of the Church of Scotland, believes herself 
honestly entitled to it. We are indeed sure that 
the many thousands of good men in that com- 
munion would not remain her members if they 
did not share this belief. Though by civil law 
the Presbyterian body is called the Church of 
Scotland, she is not Scotland's ancient Church ; 
not the Church of the saintly heroes of early 
days ; of Columba, Mungo, and Ninian, those 
three mighty men, who broke through the heath- 
en hosts and preached the truth in Scotland, 



/o 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



when Scotland lay in pagan darkness, as of old 
David's three mighty ones broke through the 
ranks of the Philistines. 

How came the Church of Scotland thus to lose 
her place and name ? Rightly or wrongly, wisely 
or unwisely, her bishops clung to the falling for- 
tunes of the house of Stuart and refused allegiance 
to William of Orange. William never forgave 
them, but at once sought the ruin of their Church. 
A servile Parliament empowered him to form a 
new Church on a basis " most agreeable to the in- 
clinations of the people. 1 ' A strange foundation 
this for any Church : the inclinations of the people ! 

In civil government the people can rightly say, 
and they only, whether they will live under a 
monarchical form of government or under a re- 
publican. But it is not so in Church affairs. Men 
may no more change with impunity the God- 
given Constitution of the Church than they may 
alter that letter of Scripture of which it is written : 
" If any man shall take away from the words of 
the book of this prophecy, God shall take away 
his part out of the book of life, and out of the 
holy city, and from the things which are written 
in this book." 1 The power and authority to do 

1 Rev. xxii. 19. 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



7' 



this had never been so definitely asserted before. 
It was indeed a new thing for a legislative body 
to commission its Chief Magistrate to originate a 
Church, and a bolder man than William might 
well have shrunk back from the task. 

For the beginning of the Church in Scotland 
we must look to the time when the Druids held 
sway and celebrated in the dark recesses of the 
forests, which still fling their black shadows 
abroad, their grim rites to the terrible Woden, 
the god of War. In those days Picts and Scots, 
unconquered by Rome's legions, held Scotland, 
which then bore its ancient name of Caledonia. 

Picts and Scots! These seem to have been 
not two nations, but several; differing widely 
from one another, and yet all alike members of 
one great Celtic family. Picts, Scots, and Britons, 
they were all essentially of the same race. Yet 
kinsmen though they were, the Picts sweeping 
out of their mountain fastnesses were continually 
harrying the Britons to death and spreading ruin 
and disaster in the southern land. As the early 
settlers in this country were ever in danger of an 
Indian massacre, so it was in Britain. There 
would be a rush, a fierce struggle, a scene of 
death, the glare of burning buildings, and the 



72 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



bands of the Picts had gone, taking their captives 
and all they could lay their hands on. The simile 
is closer yet : The Picts were pagans, the Britons 
Christians. 

In Campbell's poem of " Reullura " the poet 
sees in a Christian temple standing, we may pre- 
sume, " where inaccessible to Roman arms the 
land had been subdued to Christ," 

" the statue of an ancient saint ! 
Fair sculptured was the stone, 
It bore a crucifix ; 
Fame said it once had graced 
A Christian temple, which the Picts 
In the Britons' land laid waste." 

Who first preached Christ to the Picts and 
Scots? Were they from beyond the seas, as were 
the first teachers of Britain, or lived they nearer 
home ? There is a story often told and partly be- 
lieved, not unlike Britain's tradition of the visit 
to her shore of Joseph of Arimathea, which tells 
that in the time of Constantius, the son of Con- 
stantine the Great, a certain saint named Regulus, 
bidden by an angel, set sail from Patras in Achaia, 
where the Apostle S. Andrew had suffered mar- 
tyrdom, bearing with him to a place of safety part 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



73 



of the relics of the saint. Two years was Regu- 
lus, with his precious charge, storm-tossed over 
the seas, till he was wrecked on the Scottish shore, 
near where the city of St. Andrews stands. The 
story of Regulus and the story of Joseph of Ari- 
mathea may well stand or fall together; yet it is 
a curious fact that from the earliest time S. An- 
drew has been Scotland's patron saint. 

But legends give only a glimmering and de- 
ceptive light. Fortunately we have something 
better, something more tangible. The earliest 
Christian memorials ever found in any part of the 
British Isles are certain monumental stones in 
Wigtonshire in the lowlands of Scotland. They 
are undoubtedly of the era of Roman British 
Christianity. The Latin inscription on one of them 
shows it to be a monument marking the graves of 
two priests. " Here lie " — so runs the epitaph — 
" holy and eminent priests, namely, Viventius and 
Mavorius." Gazing on those memorable stones, 
we the readier believe the story which tells us that 
in the Diocletian persecution two Christians, Mar- 
cus and Dionysius, fled northward until they 
reached the land of the Picts, among whom, as 
the pioneers of Christianity, they were the first to 
turn their pagan kinsmen from darkness to light, 



74 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



and from the bondage of Satan unto the grace of 
God. 

Beyond the wall of Antoninus on the north, 
which separated Caledonia from Britain, many 
hundreds of fugitive Christians, in that fearful 
hour of trial, may well have found a home. No 
Roman Emperor's edicts were respected there. 
That they were fugitives from Roman tyranny 
was enough to insure them a cordial welcome, 
for the Picts hated the very name of Rome. Can 
we believe that in their new home such refugees 
refrained from speaking of Christ ? They owed 
it to the heathen, to themselves, and to their 
Lord to preach the word of God ! 

In this way, indeed, if in no other, might the 
Gospel have spread. We know that the persecu- 
tions after the death of Stephen, the first martyr, 
resulted in the Christians being dispersed abroad. 
Thus ever the blood of the martyrs has been 
the seed of the Church. Perhaps, too, the very 
slaves of the Picts had led their heathen masters 
to think kindly of Christians, and so prepare 
them for accepting Christianity when the time 
should come to choose between Christ and Wo- 
den. 

It is not, however, until the fourth century that 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



75 



we meet with undoubtedly authentic history. 
Then as through a rift in the clouds we see the 
name of Ninian writ in letters of gold. Ninian 
was a Briton, who, having been born about the 
year 360, of Christian parents, early devoted his 
life to the good of his fellow-men. During a visit 
to Rome, which he paid much as an Indian would 
visit Washington or New York nowadays, he 
had been consecrated a bishop, and on his re- 
turn had founded a church and monastery. His 
work as bishop took him over an immense field. 
From the groves at the foot of the Grampian 
Hills, where the last of the Druids was slain, his 
diocese extended to Cumberland in the south. 
At the extreme limit northward— at Dumbarton 
—where the Roman wall terminates on its west 
side, the great Patrick was in all probability 
born, and Ninian was his teacher and father in 
God. Just twenty years after, in the year 432, 
the very year when Patrick landed on Irish soil 
as the missionary of the old British Church to 
Ireland, Ninian died. The outlook was a sad one 
when he passed away. The Roman legions had 
been withdrawn in 410. In Southern Britain 
soon afterward the Angles came to harry the 
land with battle-axe and fire ; in Northern Britain 



76 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the Picts again swept over the land. Many 
Christians apostatized, and the century that fol- 
lowed Ninian's death was as if the sun had been 
darkened and the moon turned into blood. The 
powers of darkness seemed to have uninter- 
rupted sway. At the end of that time however 
we find a man at work whose name of Mun^o all 
Scotland reverences to-day. Building up the 
waste places, strengthening the things which 
remained which were ready to die, S. Mungo 
appears as the restorer of the paths to dwell in. 1 
The desolation in the interval between him and 
Ninian is best seen in this ; that though Ninian 
had consecrated many bishops not one was left 
in the land. When Mungo sought consecration 
it was from Ireland, where Patrick's labors had 
been so signally blessed. 

In the closing years of S. Mungo's life there 
appeared the third and greatest of Scotland's 
Triumvirate: the Irish - born S. Columba, the 
Apostle of the Northern Picts. Columba, in- 
deed, stands pre-eminent, and we know him well. 
Round about the names of Ninian and Mungo 
the mists of uncertainty linger. But here there 
is not a speck in all the great heaven of blue. 

1 Isaiah Iviii. 12. 



THE SISTER IX SCOTLAND 



77 



Columba is of the blood royal, and like another 
Prince Gaudama, for the good of his fellow-men, 
turns his back upon kingly rule and the palaces 
of the great. Leaving Ireland in 563 forever, he 
lands on the bleak and lonelv island, about three 
miles long, now called lona, to live for thirty-five 
years, and there to die. Never a bishop, he 
ruled as priest, with a mighty influence for good, 
the monastery of which he was the Abbot and 
founder. From that monastery missionaries 
went forth to Britain. France, Switzerland, Ger- 
man}', and even as far as Italy. Even Rome her- 
self sent youths to be educated there. Charle- 
magne sought professors there for his newly 
founded University of Paris. lona was in truth 
holy and classic ground. All that Mecca is to 
the Mohammedan. Benares to the Hindu, Jerusa- 
lem to Jew and Gentile, that lona had become 
to the whole of Western Christendom. Had all 
the twelve Apostles rested there, the reverence 
paid could not have been greater. Columba's 
prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. 

Seven generations of monks lived their lives in 
this famous monastery, plain, simple men, some 
of them bishops, but the head of the Order was 
ever a Presbyter only, out of respect for Columba 



78 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



their great founder, who was never raised to the 
episcopate, in days and in a Church when the 
episcopate meant not so much work and a dio- 
cese, as a degree in the Church of God, bestowed 
as a reward for, or recognition of, singular merit 
and unblemished holiness of life. 

In the midst of an honorable and useful career 
it was suddenly to be cut off.' Iona was not to 
suffer that decline in faith and morals which 
seemed to be the fate of all monastic institutions 
in the Middle Ages. In 802, about five years 
after the ruin of Lindisfarne in Britain, the Danes 
sacked and burned the home of the brethren. 
Undiscouraged they built another house, stronger 
and better than the first ; but that, too, was 
doomed. Again the Danes came, slew the Abbot 
before the altar, and left not one stone of the 
monastery upon another. 

" They lighted the islands with ruin's torch 
And the holy men of Iona's church 
In the temple of God lay slain." 

From that blow Iona never recovered. Her 
glory had departed, her house was left desolate. 
Soon afterward, in 836, Kenneth McAlpine arose 
as King in Scotland, under whose rule, in 843, 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



79 



the Scottish and Pictish Kingdoms were united. 
There, in a Church which he built at Dunkeld in 
memory of Columba, the relics of the saint were 
placed. Then the Roman influence suddenly ap- 
peared upon the scene. Another era had visibly 
dawned. 

For six centuries onward the history of that 
Scottish Church is but the history of other Na- 
tional Churches in the West ; it is the story of 
rise, decline, and fall. The Columban Church 
had always been free and independent. But 
she died out before her powerful rival. That 
rival, a Scottish Church under Roman influence, 
became more fully identified with the papacy than 
any other church in the British Islands. When 
even the Church of Ireland was unshackled and 
free she was Rome's vassal. 

With primitive faith gone, with unmeaning 
ceremonies imported from abroad, with national 
characteristics effaced, the result might have been 
foreseen; nor was any prophet needed. Alliance 
with Rome meant separation from the true faith 
once delivered to the Saints. When the salt had 
lost its savor, who can wonder that corruption 
followed and the people cried out for Reform ? 
That cry rang through Scotland. Was there 



So 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OE FAITH 



not a cause? Her state was worst of all the 
churches in the west, save that in Scandinavia. 
Preaching lately in his cathedral on the subject 
of unity, the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore 
contended that the reformers ought first to have 
tried to reform the Church from within ; but 
that " when the city of God was set on fire 
by the passions of men, instead of helping to put 
out the flames they fled from the city and re- 
turned to increase the conflagration — to add to 
the confusion." He was right. In England alone 
of all Christendom they stood fast, and there the 
Church stands grandly forth to-day : but in Scot- 
land, Germany, and elsewhere they did it not. 
" Burn the nests," shouted John Knox, " and the 
rooks will flee away/' It was fearful advice to 
give, but literally was it followed. From the 
fires he kindled the flames spread until abbevs, 
churches, precious documents, priceless libraries, 
were all alike reduced to ashes. In 1560 the 
revolution was at its height. When it had run 
its course, the Prayer-book had disappeared and 
there was not a bishop left. The Roman Church 
was blotted out in Scotland ; for one hundred 
years thereafter there was no Scoto-Roman 
Bishop. Extraordinary to say, Rome suffered 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



8l 



her old succession to die out without making an 
effort to replace it. 

Twice was the sacred line of the Episcopate 
sought and obtained; twice from Canterbury, 
not Rome. The Church thus restored, at one 
time held in honor, at another cast out and 
trampled under foot, yet grew mightily. When 
William landed in England there were fourteen 
bishops and one thousand clergy in Scotland ; 
and had it not been for the fatal error of her 
bishops in standing by the fallen house of Stuart, 
the true Church of Scotland might to-day be the 
Church in which all the Scottish people should 
find their happiness and their only true home. 

We do not want to reopen closed wounds. But 
Churchmen in Scotland can never forget that for 
one hundred years they were oppressed by law, 
and persecuted to death ; that their Church 
buildings were burnt or torn down and their 
public services forbidden. More than four per- 
sons besides the family were not permitted to 
meet for divine service in any house ; the penalty 
incurred by the officiating priest for disregard 
of this prohibition for the first offence was six 
months' imprisonment; for the second, transpor- 
tation for life. It was a crime to baptize an in- 

6 



82 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



fant or to say a collect from the Prayer-book 
During this Maccabean period of the Scotch 
Church her fourteen bishops dwindled down to 
four, and her one thousand clergy to but forty. 
Think of it! In one century ten bishoprics and 
nearly one thousand Protestant clergy were ob- 
literated ; and that under a distinctly Protestant 
government. 

In 1792 these laws, as oppressive and barbar- 
ous as they were unjustifiable, were repealed, and 
since then our Church has grown steadily in 
Scotland. She has now seven Bishops and two 
hundred and sixty-three Clergy in that country. 
But it is only within the last few years that 
statutes as disgraceful concerning her have been 
repealed in England. The Church of England 
had been forced by the State into refusing per- 
mission to Scotch ordained Clergy to officiate at 
her altars. So rigorous and far-reaching was this 
law that no one ordained by a Scotch bishop 
could ever hold office in England ! The priest 
ordained in any of the English colonies, in the 
American Church, in the Irish, yea, even in the 
Roman, if he would but abjure his errors and 
subscribe to the standards, could be admitted to 
the rectorship of an English parish, or become 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 



33 



bishop of an English Diocese, but one ordained 
in Scotland never. That law is blotted out now. 
But even to this day it is quite possible to find 
one here and there in England who, although a 
member of the English Church, is not ashamed 
to weaken the hands of his brethren in Scotland 
by turning his back on their churches and wor- 
shipping in the kirks of the Establishment which 
has dispossessed them ! 

We believe a grand future is before our Church 
in Scotland. She has passed through the disci- 
pline of suffering, and she is the stronger for it. 
Had it not been for her sufferings who can tell 
whether we of the American Church would ever 
have obtained the Episcopate ? Seabury's appli- 
cation was denied again and again in England. 
For more than a whole year that grand man 
sought there in vain. When he turned to our 
Church in Scotland, the boon he craved was not 
denied him. American Churchmen ought never 
to forget this. Wherever indeed this American 
Church's history shall be made known in all the 
world, there shall also this, that the Bishops of 
the Church of Scotland did for her, be told for a 
memorial of them. 

Not that the Episcopate is all we owe. She 



84 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



also gave us our Altar Service. That from the 
spoiler she had saved, so that when her Bishops 
were about to lay hands on our Bishop Seabury, 
they placed this burden upon him that he should 
carry to the Church across the seas, of which he 
was to be the first bishop, her own pure liturgical 
service. For this double gift we hail that Church 
in Scotland as indeed to us a true " Mother in 
Israel." 

It has been sometimes thought that the English 
Church and the Scotch Church are one. They 
are, in the same sense that the American and the 
English are one, but in no other. The Scotch 
Church is as independent as our own. Without 
an archbishop until the latter part of the fifteenth 
century she differed from ever) 7 other Church in 
Europe. Her twelve dioceses of Caithness, 
Ross, Moray, Aberdeen, Brechin, Dunkeld, Dun- 
blane, St. Andrew's, Argyle, The Isles, Glas- 
gow, and Galloway were under no Metropolitan. 
When an Archbishop of St. Andrew's was cre- 
ated, he came as part of the paraphernalia of a 
Romanized Church, With the disappearance of 
Roman rule, he also disappeared. 

At this day Scotland has no archbishop. The 
bishops choose one of their number as primus. 



THE SISTER IN SCOTLAND 85 

He acts as chairman at their meetings, and is 
usually their representative and spokesman ; but 
he has no metropolitan authority, and while he 
has the right to receive certain appeals and pos- 
sesses under the canons certain other prerogatives 
over his fellow bishops, the highest judicial author- 
ity is the Episcopal College, composed of all the 
bishops; the bishops themselves being appointed 
as ours are. They are chosen, that is to say, by 
the clergy of the diocese and by representatives 
of the lay communicants, a majority of both 
orders being necessary to a valid election, but 
the clergy only have the right to nominate. The 
highest legislative body is the Provincial Synod, 
formed of two Houses, one of the bishops, the 
other of the deans and representatives of the 
clergy. 

Dwelling among Presbyterians, it is natural 
that she should have been led to insist much upon 
the Episcopal Order as part of the Church's Con- 
stitution, and to be zealous for a liturgical service. 
It was indeed inevitable that these should come 
into prominence, and the result has been that, 
falling back upon her Divine birth and nature, 
and on the traditions of a Catholic past, she has 
been attracting an increasing amount of attention. 



86 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Still, although among the gentry she is a power, 
and fairly strong with the professional classes as 
well as among the poor of the large towns, the 
bulk of Scottish people are still Presbyterian. 
Small though she be, she is yet strong and vig- 
orous, and we may well believe her to be the 
leaven that is to work till the whole be leavened 
again. 



VI. 

THE SISTER IN IRELAND 



VI. 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 

" Thy rival was honored, whilst thou wert wronged and scorned, 
Thy crown was of briars, while gold her brows adorned ; 
She wooed me to temples, whilst thou layest hid in caves, 
Her friends were all masters, while thine, alas ! were slaves ; 
Yet cold in the earth, at thy feet, I would rather be, 
Than wed what I love not, or turn one thought from thee." 

—Moore : " The Ancient Church of Ireland." 

From the shores of Scotland on a clear day the 
blue line of the Irish coast can be distinctly seen. 
The earliest inhabitants, both of Scotland and 
Britain, who first looked out on that coast-line, 
would not have been true to their human nature 
unless they had sought to know something of that 
western isle. Nor would they, if Christians, have 
been true to their Master's teachings unless they 
had sought some way of imparting to its people 
the knowledge of the truths they themselves pos- 
sessed. 

Of the names of those who first responded to 



90 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



this call there is not even a tradition left. St. 
John the Divine has indeed been claimed as the 
one to whom the earliest Christians in Ireland owe 
their baptism, but that not personally, only medi- 
ately through those who followed the " disciple 
whom Jesus loved." We, however, need no keen 
insight, no mind peculiarly adapted to weighing 
evidence, no prophetic vision, no providential 
guidance, to assure us that the first preachers in 
Ireland were natives of Britain. No need was 
there for missionaries to visit Ireland from the 
distant East. When once the Gospel had touched 
British soil, those who had freely received might 
be trusted to freely give. 

When, however, the Divine message of peace 
and good -will to men which angels first pro- 
claimed came to her shores, Ireland had long been 
an inhabited country. The Irish, indeed, boast of 
the antiquity of their race, and justly, if what they 
claim be true. The country, we are assured, was 
colonized before the Flood ! Close by the Tower 
of Babel, we are told, one Milesius, taught both 
Hebrew and Irish. It was this Milesius who, 
afterward moving with his family into Ireland, 
found somebody there before him. Indeed, go- 
ing farther back still, the Irish historian Keating 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 



91 



says : " To give an account of the first inhabitants 
of Ireland, I am obliged to begin at the creation 
of the World ! " This is probably a slight rhet- 
orical exaggeration, similar to that of the Welsh- 
man who, when constructing his genealogical 
table, remarked, with respect to one of his an- 
cestors, " about this time Adam was born." With 
good cause, however, do the Irish boast of the 
extreme antiquity of their race : 

" Their tribe, they said, their high degree, 
Was sung in Tara's psaltery," 

But the most enthusiastic Irishman will hardly 
claim that the stock is absolutely pure. The 
Emerald Isle, like America, has had its fascination 
for almost every nation. To her shores have 
come successive migrations, until at last no coun- 
try in Europe contains so great a mixture of 
races. English and Scotch, Danes and Normans, 
Gauls and Spaniards, Northmen from Scandi- 
navia, and Phoenicians from Carthage, if not in- 
deed from more distant Tyre and Sidon, have all 
found a home in Ireland. 

Naturally their religion has been somewhat 
cosmopolitan. There have been gods many and 
lords many. Druidism once flourished side by 



9 2 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



side with the Phoenician worship of the Sun, 
while, notwithstanding the well-known fact that 
there are no snakes in Ireland, serpent worship is 
said to have once existed there. It was plainly 
a fruitful field for missionary effort, presenting 
some new problems and difficult complications to 
him who would win that island for Christ. 

Now, when we first hear of a missionary settling 
among this heterogeneous population, he is con- 
fessedly not the pioneer. Christianity is there 
before his arrival, and, oddly enough, he is well 
aware of the fact. It was even the cause of his 
coming. This missionary was Palladius, who ar- 
rived from Rome in 431, sent by Pope Celestine 
to " the Irish believing in Christ." So runs the 
record. Naturally conjecture has been busy as 
to why he came at all. Was the Bishop of Rome 
at this earl} 7 date seeking the lordship over his 
brethren? No; such attempts were not made for 
at least two centuries later. An occasional 
bishop of Rome might be at times somewhat 
arrogant, as the bishop of the world's metropolis, 
but taken as a whole the Bishops of Rome 
were for centuries earnest apostolic men, who 
were as free from claiming the superiority they 
now claim as are say the Bishops of London or 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 



93 



New York. Was he trying, then, to aid the Irish 
to put down the heresy of Pelagius as two Gallic 
Bishops had just helped the Church in Britain? 
We do not know that the Church in Ireland 
was infected with the heresy of Pelagius ; but if 
so, the Gallic Church would have been the one 
which would most naturally have come to the 
rescue of the Irish, even if the purified and now 
strengthened British Church could not have so 
done. 

We, however, would make a third suggestion. 
Why should not Ninian, bishop of the western 
shore of Britain, who had actually been conse- 
crated in Rome, tell the Bishop of Rome of the 
fields whitening unto the harvest in Ireland ? 
From his own monastery at Candida Casa it is 
possible that brethren had often gone to the land 
whose hills they could distinctly see across the 
strait. But Ninian could do little in that direc- 
tion. It was a grand opportunity for the Church 
in imperial Rome, with her wealth and opportun- 
ities of many kinds, and the Bishop of Rome 
nobly seized it. All honor to him for his zeal 
and for the effort he made. Unfortunately his 
choice fell on the wrong man. Palladius was not 
a Columba nor a Boniface, nor even an Angus- 



94 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



tine. He was not of the stuff of which mission- 
aries are made. Founding no churches : con- 
verting no tribe, he soon left the missionary field. 
And so ended the only effort Rome ever made for 
the true evangelization of Ireland. When next 
she appeared it was very much in the spirit of 
Mohammed, whose alternative to the heretic was 
the Koran or the Sword : but not at all in the 
spirit of the Master who said : My kingdom is 
not of this world." 1 " Put up thy sword into the 
sheath." 2 

Happily for Ireland, at the extreme edge of 
Ninian's diocese there lived in the old Roman 
town of Dumbarton, one Calpurnius. a deacon of 
the British Church, as well as an official of his 
native town. The wild Irish, sweeping up the 
Clyde on an occasion, seized and bore away to 
slavery in his sixteenth year, a son of this British 
clergyman, along with many others of the people. 
That was a sad day for Calpurnius and his wife, 
who tradition says was a sister of Martin of 
Tours. But God had work for their son to do. 
As he chose David, his servant, so he chose Pat- 
rick also. (> and took him away from the sheep- 
folds : as he was following the ewes great with 

1 John xviii. 36. r - John xviii. 11. 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 



95 



young ones he took him ; that he might feed 
Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. " 1 
After six years of life on the Irish hills, keeping 
sheep for a pagan master, he escaped to his own 
country. But he could not stay at home. As in 
the vision of the man of Macedonia, when St. Paul 
heard the summons to go across the blue ^Egean, 
so Patrick in like manner heard a voice saying to 
him, " Come over and help us." Making no delay, 
he sought and obtained ordination as his father 
had done before him ; for those were days in the 
Church of God 

" Long ere her churchmen, by bigotry, 
Were barred from holy wedlock's tie." 

Soon afterwards having been consecrated bishop 
to the Irish, he went back to the land of his cap- 
tivity ; and there in the same field and among the 
same people where Palladius, the Roman mis- 
sionary, had so ignominiously failed, Patrick, the 
British bishop, achieved the most glorious suc- 
cess ever known to history since Apostolic days. 
Partly from others, partly from himself, as stated 
in those " Confessions " of his which remind us of 
the Confessions of Augustine, we know the story 

1 Ps. lxxviii. 70-71. 



9 6 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



of his life; and very sweet and very beautiful it is. 
The strongest and yet gentlest of men, with the 
noblest, most devout and lovable of characters, 
he was the man whose love for souls has made for 
centuries past his name a household word in all 
western Christendom— a name that princes have 
loved to bear. 

Modern Rome claims this man for her own — a 
man who was never in Rome in his life, who 
owes nothing to her, but who, on the contrary, 
was the child of the old British Church; bap- 
tized and catechized in the old Church of which 
his father was a deacon. Consecrated a bishop 
in the Gallic Church, a man who never mentions 
Rome, and whom Rome herself never mentions 
until long after his death, we justly ask on what 
ground or pretence the attempt is made to rob 
the British Church of the brightest jewel in her 
crown. His work began in 432. At his death all 
Ireland might have cried out as did Elisha, " My 
father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the 
horsemen thereof."' 1 Mainly to him was it due 
that, by the seventh century, Ireland was called 
the Isle of Saints, and that from that isle, long be- 
fore the seventh century, missionaries went forth 

1 2 Kings ii. 12. 



THE SISTER IN IREI AND 



97 



to Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and even Britain; 
and that when no less a man than Gregory the 
Great, Bishop of Rome though he was, was igno- 
rant of the Greek language, 1 the clergy of Ireland 
were reading the writings of the New Testament, 
not only in their own tongue in which they were 
born, but in the language in which the Apostles 
and Evangelists wrote them. 2 

Patrick, Rome's missionary to Ireland! Then 
how, may we ask, are we to explain these two 
facts: first, that Ireland was the very last country 
in Europe to submit to the papal claims, and then 
only at the point of the sword ; secondly, that 
Downpatrick, the place of his burial, has not, in- 
stead of Armagh, been holy ground to the Roman 
Catholic? Not until the twelfth century did the 
Church of Patrick lose her independence ; then the 
fate which had overtaken all western Churches 
overtook her. It happened thus : — Once, once 
only, in all the long history of the papacy, has 
there been an English Pope. Then was wrought 
the deed of shame. That English Pope plotted 
with the English King to rivet the papal chains 
upon her who had never been in bondage to any 
man. Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspear) was that 

1 See his Epistles, vii. 32 ; xi. 74. 2 Killen, p. 51. 

7 



IX THE HOUSEHOLD OE FAITH 



English Pope; Henry II. was that English King. 
Until then Ireland was free. Until then Ireland 
was utterly indifferent to the spiritual thunders of 
Rome. But this indifference could not be forever 
tolerated ; and the Bishop of Rome sought at last 
the aid of England against Ireland, very much 
as at a later day. he sought that of Spain against 
England herself. Henry was called upon by the 
Pope to invade Ireland. Poor man ! How one 
sin leads on to another. Two years before, hav- 
ing murdered Becket for fighting the Pope's bat- 
tle.— a deed of blood that cost him his indepen- 
dence, and at which all Europe stood aghast —he 
bared his back in penance to the lash. The in- 
vasion of a free country at the bidding of his 
Roman master was part of the expiation of his 
crime. 

The result of the invasion was far-reaching. It 
lasts to this day. It is more than seven centuries 
since, yet to-day Ireland is England's chastise- 
ment. At the sacred Rock of Cashel, 1 in 1172, 
when three thousand bishops and clergv were 
assembled. Henry was accepted as the Sovereign 
Lord of Ireland : then for the first time in her 
history Ireland's Church bowed down as vassal 

1 Wordsworth's Church of Ireland, p. 185. 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 



99 



of the Pope. The very Rock itself might have 
cried out. What a contrast ! oh, what a contrast! 
to that striking scene at Runnymede in 121 5, 
when the archbishops, bishops, barons, and peo- 
ple of England would have none of it, and when 
the air was laden with the shouts of those who 
declared, in the words of the Great Charter, 
" The English Church shall be free ! " 1 In Ire- 
land, alas, how different! "How are the mighty 
fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! " 2 

In 1 5 36 the Bishop of Rome was declared to have 
no rightful jurisdiction in Ireland ; but accepting 
not the judgment of the national Church, he es- 
tablished in 1565 the present Italian Mission there. 

The spiritual invasion of Ireland by the Bishop 
of Rome is indeed the more inexcusable, because 
there has never been any pretence that Ireland 
has not always possessed a valid Episcopate. We 
hear of no Nag's Head Fable there. The line 
of the Irish Bishops has been, 

" Like the bright flame that shone in Kildare's holy fane 
And burned long ages through darkness and storm." 

But yet unlike that sacred fire of the Nun of Kil- 
dare, it has never failed. 

1 Magna Charta, Sec. i. , " quod Anglicana ecclesia libra sit." 
2 2 Samuel i. 27. 



IOO 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



We do not, however, speak in parables when 
we say that the weak spot of Ireland's Church 
in time past has been her Episcopate. To those 
who know the power of efficient organization and 
proper concentration of forces, and are familiar 
with the history of Ireland, it v/ill not seem strange 
that the old Celtic Church was thus, on her own 
soil and among her own people, ousted from her 
rightful place. She had no organization. Her in- 
herited constitution was against her. Pastors she 
had in abundance and bishops by the hundred ; 
but she had neither Parishes nor Dioceses. 1 Her 
Clergy were as so many wandering stars. When 
John Wesley, defying all parochial order, replied 
to his bishop's admonition that all the world was 
his parish, and he would preach where, and when, 
and how he pleased, he was but following the worst 
feature in the life of the old Celtic Church in 
Ireland. The bishops of that Church claimed 
the like privilege. Living in monastic establish- 
ments they issued forth like soldiers from a for- 
tress to carry on a guerilla warfare. Without 
definite plans, and without harmonious arrange- 
ment, they attempted to do the work of evan- 
gelists and so build up a Church in Ireland. 

1 Wordsworth's Church of Ireland, p. 87. 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 



101 



Who can wonder that a system like this broke 
clown before the onward march of a Church which 
had inherited the genius of imperial Rome for 
organization, and well understood the value of 
orderly and methodical work? 

To-day this old Church is weak and impotent 
from another cause, one of her bishops, the 
Bishop of Derry, perhaps the ablest, the most elo- 
quent, the best theologian of them all, being the 
judge: "The prospect," said this bishop, in his 
address to the Diocesan Synod of Derrv and 
Raphoe, October 21, 1890, " is gloomy. It is our 
sad lot to live in a land of ruins. The ashes of 
the furnace of disestablishment sprinkled towards 
heaven in 1869 have become the small dust of 
Communism in all the land." The Church has 
been losing ground. And he gives the reason : 
" We have had for long generations, so far as ex- 
ternals were concerned, bald services and ugly 
churches ; " speak if you will of High Church or 
Low Church. There is a standard of service and 
a measure of ritual laid down in our service 
books ; that service and that ritual are full of 
innate dignity and beauty. Neglect these things, 
be untrue to them, and a Church will fall behind 
and wither away ! 



102 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

Would that the Churches in Britain could come 
to the help of the Church of Ireland ; could come 
there to the help of the Lord ; to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty. For the Churches in 
Britain have owed, and jet owe much to that 
Church of Ireland : « She has done great things 
for them ; yea, she hath done great things for 
them already, whereof they rejoice." 1 True, they 
gave Patrick to Ireland, but that fact ought now 
to be their chief incentive; for was there ever a 
gift more bountifully repaid, ever a more beauti- 
ful exhibition of the Preacher's words, "Cast thy 
bread upon the waters : for thou shalt find it after 
many days."* The gift of Patrick was like that 
gift of mercy, which blesseth him that gives and 
him that takes. It was to Britain in Britain's own 
hour of need, nearly a century after Patrick's 
death, that the great Columba came ; and in the 
original home of Patrick, and all along that west- 
ern shore, the Irish Apostle's son in the faith 
labored on, building churches, establishing mis- 
sions, converting the heathen, until all through 
those parts a flourishing Church was again seen. 
England, too, shared the fruit of Columba's la- 
bors. When in South Britain the heathen swept 



THE SISTER IN IRELAND 103 

Christianity from the land, it was from the Irish 
missionary stations that men went forth into North- 
umbria to preach Christ to the heathen there! 
Thus Aidan and Finan and their successors re- 
kindled the light which had been quenched, and 
which, thus rekindled, has never ceased to shine 
brightly, and shall shine, as we earnestly believe, 
until the day star from on high, before which all 
other lights will " begin to pale their ineffectual 
fires," shall rise forevermore. 

To Ireland's Church, as a Church, we of Amer- 
ica owe nothing; but to her sons we have owed 
much. It is from that Church that some of our 
present most gifted bishops have come. Let 
one of these tell us of his love for the Church of 
his early life which yet abides, while he guides 
a diocese in the land of his adoption ; as loyal a 
churchman and as true a citizen as ever any born 
on our own soil. He is but the type of his breth- 
ren, when he says : 1 " It is more than half a cen- 
tury since that, as a child, I stood clasping my 
father's hand, upon the deck of a ship which, 
drifting down the Lough, was bearing me to the 
land I love with every pulse of my heart— the 

» Sermon by Hugh Miller Thompson, Bishop of Mississippi, in Cork 
Cathedral, vide Canadian Church Guardian, 1S88. 



104 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

United States of America. And yet in all these 
years I have never ceased to love the land of my 
birth, have never ceased to feel a pride that I am 
an Ulster man, a Derry man ; have never ceased 
to be thankful that I was baptized and catechized 
in the old Church of Ireland, the Church of St. 
Patrick and Columbkille. And as the vision of 
4 Berry's sunlit spire ' was the last I remember as 
a child of the home I was leaving, so I hailed it 
the other day, across the silvery Foyle as symbol 
on its rock-founded and rock-girded hill, of that 
unchangeable Church which, in all the shocks of 
time and change, remains the same, and which 
lifts, as your fair Cathedral lifts, its gleaming 
cross aloft, to point our souls to the unchangin? 
heaven, our fatherland and home." 



VII. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH 



VII. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH 

" Our Constitution had begun to exist in times when states- 
men were not much accustomed to frame exact definitions. " 

— Macaulay. 

Without a constitution, no nation, no state, no 
society, no organized body of men can exist at all. 
Its supreme importance is aptly witnessed to by 
our ordinary phraseology. By an easy transfer 
of ideas, we do not hesitate to speak of the aggre- 
gate of our vital powers as our physical constitu- 
tion. Now, what that is to a man we well know. 
It is peace of mind and ease of body ; it is sue- 
cess ; it is happiness ; it is life itself. Similarly 
the Church of Christ has a constitution, which is 
to her all that such can ever be to the state it cre- 
ates and by which it is created. But with this 
difference : That of the Church is divine ; the 
hand of man may not touch it : whereas that of 



1 08 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the State is but human, and may at any time be 
amended, changed, or even ended. In this respect 
there is a chasm, deep and wide as the ocean, 
between the Church of Christ and every other 
organized body in the world. 

Now, a nation's constitution is generally stated 
in language so clear, that "the wayfaring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein." 1 Such, 
e.g., is the Constitution of the United States of 
America ; for it is reasonably brief and it is rea- 
sonably clear. We once heard a distinguished 
judge, addressing a body of law students, say 
that they could read it through while they were 
discussing the last game of base-ball. On the 
other hand it might have been neither clear 
nor brief, nor even written at all. Partly en- 
shrined in unwritten customs and time-worn tradi- 
tions, partly in the historical records of a distant 
past, partly contained in supplementary Statutes 
and Ordinances of modern legislation, we do not 
infrequently find a country's Constitution. Such 
is that e.g., of England: "Our Constitution," 
said Macaulay, " had begun to exist in times when 
statesmen were not much accustomed to frame 
exact definitions." Had he spoken this word of 

1 Isaiah xxxv. 8. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



IO9 



the Church and not of the State, it would have 
been equally true. The New Testament proves 
this. There we find nothing like a formal state- 
ment constituting the Christian Church, clearly 
defining and determining the conditions of her 
being ; nothing like that clear word of ancient 
days when God " gave Israel a law ; which he 
commanded our forefathers to teach their chil- 
dren ; that their posterity might know it : and the 
children which were yet unborn : To the intent 
that when they came up : they might show T their 
children the same." 1 There is nothing in the 
New Testament at all approaching an exact 
definition of the essentials of the Church : and 
yet it would be an error to suppose that there 
is nothing of that nature to be found in its 
pages, which is the Last Source of all our knowl- 
edge of things spiritual ! On the contrary, a Con- 
stitution is there enshrined so closety illustrated 
in all the workings of the history of that period, 
that even were we without the New Testament, 
we could still show from the records of Apostolic 
life what was the original Constitution of the 
Apostolic Church ! For us those Scriptures will 
ever contain all things necessary to be believed. 

1 Ps. lxxviii. 5, 6. 



no 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



They are that Word of God of which it is de- 
clared that while " the grass withereth and the 
flower fadeth, the word of our God shall stand 
forever." 1 

The great Bishop Butler has told us that " a 
man may lose his limbs, his organs of sense, and 
even the greater part of his body, and yet remain 
the same living agent." 2 These things are in real- 
ity no part of a man's true self, and their re- 
moval is not, therefore, the dissolution of the liv- 
ing agent. In a similar manner much, perhaps, 
of what we have been apt to think of as the 
Church's true self may be removed, and no disso- 
lution will follow. But remove essential things 
and the Church ceases to be. Our present in- 
quiry is as to what these essential things are. 

The Church is literally God's kingdom on 
earth. Jesus Christ, both God and Man, is its 
King. Any other that in this kingdom maketh 
himself a king or potentate, speaketh against 
Christ, who alone is rightfully Lord of all. His 
kingdom was founded and absolutely exists for 
certain definite and well understood objects. It 
is itself a distinct creation in the world, yet " not 
of this world." Membership therein is obtained 

1 Isaiah xl. 7. 2 The Analogy of Religion, Part I. Chap. 1. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



III 



in a particular way, good standing maintained in 
another way, while its affairs are administered by 
officials whose duties and powers are created and 
defined by the original constitution itself. The 
general arrangement of the Church, in fact, re- 
minds us of a well-planned and carefully ordered 
civil government, whether monarchy or republic 
makes no real difference. 

Let us speak, first, of the officials. They are 
analogous to the magistrates in a civil common- 
wealth and are , and always have been, of three 
ranks or orders. " It is evident unto all men," 
the Prayer Book says, " diligently reading Holy 
Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the 
Apostles' time there have been these Orders of 
ministers in Christ's Church, — Bishops, Priests, 
and Deacons." 1 Please observe that the appeal 
is to history; not to dogmas of the school, nor 
to degrees of council, but to history. 

The lowest Order is that of Deacons. These 
were at first appointed to assist the higher offi- 
cers in their secular and routine business, so as 
to leave them at liberty to attend to the weightier 
matters of the law. 2 But it is clear that they were 

1 Prayer Book, Preface to Ordination Services, p. 509. 
2 Acts vi. 1 to 6. 



112 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



also empowered to help them in their more re- 
ligious and sacred work. 1 The first deacons 
preached and baptized ; as did S. Philip, with 
signal success, in Samaria. 2 At the present day a 
deacon is commonly one looking forward to be 
called unto the higher ministries in the Church. 
The Church, indeed, exhorts him so to use his 
office that he may be found worthy of this ad- 
vancement. 3 Meanwhile, what his duties are we 
have been told by good George Herbert in his 
own inimitable and quaint way. The Deacon : 

" He's purposely ordain 'd to minister, 
In sacred things, to another officer." 

The second Order is that oi Presbyters or 
Priests, the name matters not : 

" For Priest is but Presbyter writ short." 

For brevity's sake, ay, and for another reason 
too, we will give him the shorter name: 

u The Priest, I say, the Presbyter, I mean, 
As nowadays he's called 
By many men ; but I choose to retain 



i Acts vi. 7 to 15. 2 Acts viii. 5 to 40, 

? Prayer Book, p. 513, Collect. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



113 



The name wherewith install'd — ■ 
He was at first in our own mother tongue, 
And doing so, I hope, I do no wrong." 

It is of these officers that S. Paul, writing to 
Timothy, says : " Let the elders that rule well be 
counted worthy of double honor, especially they 
who labor in the word and doctrine/' 1 We often 
lind mention made in Scripture of these elders, 
or priests as we now call them, but never under 
more touching circumstances than when those 
who were in charge of the churches of Ephesus 
met S. Paul at Miletus and sadly took their last 
farewell, sorrowing most of all for the words 
which he spake, that they should see his face no 
more. 2 The special work of these, as men wholly 
consecrated to God, is the care of souls ; the ad- 
ministration of public worship and of the sacra- 
ments ; the preaching of God's Word ; the visita- 
tion of the sick, and the due exercise of discipline 
over the flocks committed to them. 

The highest in rank is the bishop. To some 
it is doubtful what this office is. Their diffi- 
culty arises from the fact that at first these offi- 
cials bear other titles. Not seldom are they 



1 1 Tim v. 17. 

8 



2 Acts xx. 17 to 38. 



114 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

styled Apostles, sometimes Angels, as S. John 
terms them in the Apocalypse when speaking of 
the seven churches of Asia Minor ; sometimes by 
the name they now universally bear; but what 
matters it? Overseers of their brethren were they 
always, and true magistrates of the Church of 
God, to whom was committed the oversight and 
general government of the Christian Church ; 
officers divinely appointed, through human agen- 
cies, to commission their successors from and 
by the Holy Ghost forever, and to order every 
sacred function which belongs to the Church 
Militant in all its fulness till time shall be no 
more. 

The ceremony by which one becomes a mem- 
ber of this kingdom is known as baptism. As 
natural birth put us into the visible world, so 
Christian baptism put us into the spiritual world. 
By the washing of water in the name of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost we are made mem- 
bers of this Church, children of God, and inheri- 
tors of the Kingdom of Heaven presumptively 
hereafter. Without doubt, and without delay, 
and, so far as we know, never in any other way, 
are we admitted to this spiritual citizenship and 
all its attendant blessings 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



Many find this teaching a stumbling-block. 
They cannot understand how so much can de- 
pend upon so " little." Perhaps the difficulty orig- 
inates in the thought that baptism is little. But 
nothing connected with the worship of God is 
little. Moreover, whatever baptism intrinsically 
may be, its observance is absolutely bound up 
with the alternatives of obedience or disobedience 
to the plain command of our King. He has com- 
manded His servants to go into all the world and 
baptize every creature ; which is surely not less 
a command to every creature to be baptized than 
it is to them to baptize. But no Christ-given 
ceremony can ever be a small and unimportant 
matter. Yet if it were, " Behold, how great a 
matter a little fire kindleth ! "* The spark which 
became the great fire of Chicago might once have 
been quenched by a mere child with a jug of water 
in his hand. So, too, the birth of an infant child 
is but in itself a trifling event when it is over ; 
yet upon it altogether depends the whole future 
life of that child. Now, baptism is like that birth : 
for baptism is spiritual birth ! 

It is, at all events, an indication of the impor- 
tance the Church assigns to baptism, that she pro. 

1 James iii. 5, 



u6 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



vides for its administration no less than three 
forms of service : 

1. — For infants who soon after birth are, and 
should be, brought to the Church ; 

2. — For those who are in danger of death and 
■cannot be taken out of their houses ; 

3- — For adults whose baptism has been hitherto 
neglected or deferred. 

But, admitting the duty of those who have 
come to years of discretion to be baptized, why 
baptize in infancy ? We answer that not one only, 
but several considerations, have led the Church to 
baptize the lambs of the flock. 

She remembers, first of all, that baptism corre- 
sponds to circumcision, which was administered 
to infants of only eight days old, and that neglect 
of that ordinance was severely punished 1 under 
Hebraic law. 

In the next place, she remembers that the 
charge to baptize every creature was given even 
to Jews. Now can anyone doubt how such Jews 
as SS. Peter and Paul and James would interpret 
this command, accustomed as they had ever been 
to see children of the tenderest age admitted into 
covenant relationship with God under the old 

1 Exodus ix. 24. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



117 



dispensation? Would they have been likely to 
refuse baptism to the tenderest infant? Had they 
been disposed to do so, what objection would 
they have offered? If any, under what authority ? 
Had not Christ said expressly, " Suffer the little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not?" 1 Had not this settled it to their Jewish 
minds ? 

Furthermore can anyone, studying the New 
Testament diligently, fail to acknowledge that it is 
more probable than not that children were actu- 
ally baptized by the Apostles, since whole house, 
holds were baptized by them at one time ; and es- 
pecially so since on the day of Pentecost, they 
expressly taught that the promises of the Gospel 
were to the children also, " to you and your chil- 
dren." 2 

Again, there is in evidence the nature of bap- 
tism itself. If, as Christ said, it be so that " except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can- 
not enter into the kingdom of God," 3 then bap- 
tism is indeed a new birth— a birth into that kino*- 
dom, which is the Church of God militant here on 
earth. And why, since infants are but passive re- 
cipients of natural birth, life, and sustenance, and 

1 Mark x 14. 2 Acts ii. 39. s John iii. 5. 



1 1 S IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



their early unconsciousness is admittedly no bar 
to their immediately inheriting property or re- 
ceiving gifts, must a spiritual birth alone be de- 
pendent upon consciousness and intelligence? 
We confidently await a satisfactory answer to 
this question, as even to what is utterly unan- 
swerable. 

For these reasons the Church from the be°rn- 
ning has ever baptized infants. By this baptism 
these little ones are made God's children, not 
Methodists or Baptists, Presbyterians or Congre- 
gationalists, not even Episcopalians : but they are 
made Christians— children of the Catholic Church 
of Christ, and the Catholic Church is thus coex- 
tensive with all who are rightly baptized, 

Next to baptism comes confirmation — in a cer- 
tain sense a part of baptism. Through the ab- 
sence of bishops, for years and years it was never 
administered in America. The advent of apos- 
tolic bishops here was followed by a series of 
confirmation services, almost Pentecostal in their 
fervor and in the greatness of their results. In 
the denominational bodies it remains not vet ad- 
ministered. Through the same lack of Officers 
which once prevented its administration in the 
old Church of the land, these newer Christian 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 119 

communities are unwillingly obliged to dispense 
with it now. Confirmation is, in fact, still called 
in some places " Bishop's Baptism." It is the 
complement and fulfilment of baptism. Its chief 
idea is that something already in existence needs 
strengthening. It is a buttress built to support 
a wall already standing; armor given to a sol- 
dier already enlisted. In the words of an old 
Prayer- Book, 1 "Confirmation is ministered to 
them that be baptized, that by imposition of 
hands and prayer, they may receive strength and 
defence against all temptation to sin and the as- 
saults of the world and the devil." 

This is all clear enough, and yet often mistaken 
are some of the most loyal of the Church's chil- 
dren about the meaning of this service. It is often 
regarded as the formal and public "joining the 
Church." How strange that such an idea should 
become so prevalent. One cannot join that of 
which one is already a member, and by baptism 
we were made members of the Church once for 
all. It is thus an error to speak of "joining the 
Church " at confirmation ; so also is it an error 
to think of it as simply taking vows upon our- 
selves once made for us by others. The adult 

1 The Prayer-Book of 1549. 



120 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



candidate for baptism answers for himself at his 
baptism, and yet he must be and is confirmed all 
the same ; just as the twelve men at Ephesus were 
confirmed by S. Paul, who had a little while be- 
fore been baptized by him. Baptism waits for its 
full completion, and for the more abundant out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit, at confirmation, when 
we are admitted to the fullest membership, and 
share in all the privileges of the divinely consti- 
tuted Church of Christ. 

Baptized, and then confirmed, the citizen of the 
great Christian Republic can at once claim its 
greatest blessings. He is then called, indeed, to 
true Holy Communion. But even here there is 
no mere badge of membership, nor yet even the 
only act of worship provided by the constitution 
of the Church, but in truth a chosen means of 
maintaining healthy, spiritual life. " This do," 
said our King, "in remembrance of Me." 1 "My 
flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink in- 
deed." 2 

Alas, that there should ever have been any mis- 
understanding about statements so plain, and a 
service so solemn. Yet there have been misun- 
derstandings from the first : " How can this man 

* Luke xxii. 19. 2 John vi. 55. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



121 



give us his flesh to eat?" 1 incredulously asked 
the men who first heard the words, " Whoso eat- 
eth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal 
life." 2 And still men continue to ask the ques- 
tion. But is it really necessary that they should 
know, necessary even that they should all attach 
one and the same meaning to those solemn words? 
Is not simple, unquestioning obedience to the 
King's command sufficient? It is indeed requisite 
to see that we have something here altogether 
holy, which must be treated with all due rever- 
ence ; but is there need of more ? May we not, 
with Queen Elizabeth, say : 

" Christ took the bread and brake it ; 
He was the Word that spake it ; 
And what that Word doth make it, 
That I believe, and take it, 5 ' 

Yet all knowledge is not denied. Much we can 
know, and all we rightly can, we should know. 
Knowledge is always power ; power here to love 
God better and better ; power to find truer joy 
and peace in believing ; and power to find more 
and more grace to help us in time of need. 

The Holy Communion is the continual plead 

1 John vi, 52. 2 John vi. 54. 



122 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



ing before God of the one perfect sacrifice of the 
Son of God. That full, perfect, and sufficient 
sacrifice and oblation for the sins of the whole 
world, can never be repeated. But when we en- 
ter God's House to show, In Christ's own way, 
Christ's death till He come, we as it were plead 
that sacrifice again, and put God again in mind of 
it ; we claim in it the sole merits of Christ our 
shield, so that all through its solemn celebration 
we seem to be saying: "Jesus died for me: be- 
tween my sins and their deservings I put his 
cross and passion." 

Let us here note that the distinction sometimes 
drawn between the Jewish priests and Christian 
priests, as if the former were sacrificing priests 
and the latter not, is misleading. " A little knowl- 
edge is a dangerous thing." The Jewish priests 
were sacrificing priests only in the sense that 
Christian priests are. Jewish sacrifices found 
their efficacy only at Calvary, and apart from the 
sacrifice on the Cross they were " lighter than 
vanity itself." It was of these very sacrifices that 
S. Paul declared : " Every priest standeth daily 
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sac- 
rifices, which can never take away sins." 1 

J Heb. x. n. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



123 



" Not all the blood of beasts, 
On Jewish altars slain, 
Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
Or wash away the stain." 

There is indeed one difference between ours and 
theirs, but it is not important. It is this : theirs 
looked forward ; ours, backward. Theirs were for 
the most part accompanied by the shedding of 
blood ; ours altogether without, " ours is the sac- 
rifice- of praise and thanksgiving — of soul and 
body." But in the thing itself, in all the essentials 
of the service, in the root idea of sacrifice, Jewish 
and Christian sacrifices were the same. Hence 
S. Paul says : "We have an altar/' 1 So, too, 
have we priests, modelled after the pattern of 
him who was the only true Sacrificing Priest 
there has ever been — that Holy One, who, having 
made, by one oblation once offered, one full per- 
fect and sufficient sacrifice for sins, sat down for- 
ever at the right hand of God. 

Now, what is the raison d'etre of all this ? What 
is the Church's " mission? " We briefly answer : 
The salvation of men. This is not, however, as 
some think, a future but a present work. With- 
out salvation here and now, there can be no sat 

1 Heb. xiii. 10. 



124 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



vation hereafter. Yet salvation is not of the 
Church. The Church is a created thing and sal- 
vation must come from God. 

" Christ is made the sure salvation, 
Christ, the head and corner-stone." 

"For there is none other name under heaven 
given among men whereby we must be saved." 1 
Yet the Church bears a part in a work so glori- 
ous. Her mission — her primary mission— is to 
reveal and preserve the truth. For this she ex- 
isted in Jewish days ; for this she was re-created 
by Christ and received a new commission. What 
S. John says of his own Gospel is true of all 
Scripture, old and new. " These are written that 
ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God ; and that believing ye might have life 
through his name." 2 The manifestation of the 
Lord Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life, is the central essence of the scriptural rev- 
elation. 

The Church is the divinely appointed guardian 
of the truth ; with the Apostles' Creed for her 
constitution. The articles of that creed are as 
the keystones to her arches " built upon the foum 

1 Acts iv. 12. 2 j hn xx. 31. 



THE DIVINE CONSTITUTION 



125 



dation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
Himself being the chief corner-stone." 1 

We have thus laid bare the framework of the 
Church. By another metaphor this framework 
supports what is sometimes termed the platform 
of the Church. The kingship of Christ, the Holy 
Scriptures, the two Sacraments, the Creeds, the 
Apostolic Ministry, constitute this framework and 
platform. Here we have " the faith once deliv- 
ered to the saints." 

If it be pointed out that in this "framew r ork " 
or " platform " no mention is made of confirma- 
tion, nor yet of the orders of deacon and priest, 
which we have spoken of as a necessary part of 
the divine Constitution, we reply that confirma- 
tion is but a part of baptism, and that the lower 
orders of the ministry are involved in the higher. 
The episcopate is at once the fountain and the 
river of the ministry, the priesthood and the dia- 
conate are as tributary rivulets inflowing from 
the common source. The less is contained in the 
greater, and that greater is the historic episcopate 
with its Head enthroned in heaven : — that great 
Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, under whose 
unsleeping Episcopate the Church is accomplish- 
ing her work ! 

1 Eph. ii. 20. 



VIII. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA 



VIII. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA 

" The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre 
Observe degree, priority and space." 

—Shakespeare: "Troilus and Cressida," 
Act I., Sc. 3. 

Eighteen centuries have left their mark upon 
the Church's framework, and to-day she stands 
forth a kingdom not of this world, yet a king- 
dom highly organized. Her organization is, of 
course, something entirely different from her 
Constitution. That is unalterable. " No decree 
nor statute which the King establisheth may be 
changed." 1 But it is not so with her temporal 
organization. That can be changed, for it is 
merely the machinery with which she does her 
work. Indeed, it is an indispensable mark of a 
true national Church that she can at any time 
adapt her methods to the ever-changing demands 

1 Daniel vi. 15. 

9 



130 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



of the age. " Every particular or national 
Church hath authority to ordain, change, or abol- 
ish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained 
only by man's authority, so that all things be 
done to edifying." 1 

It is of this temporal organization that we now 
speak. But temporal though it be, its importance 
is confessedly great. Bible, sacraments, and of- 
ficers there might be; but if the Church pos- 
sessed no organization, she would be very much 
in the position of a body of citizens without dis- 
cipline or military training marching against a 
well-drilled enemy. However well accoutred, 
well officered, patriotic in spirit, and united in 
purpose those citizens might be, they could never 
contend successfully against well-trained invad- 
ers. Even numbers, strength, integrity of pur- 
pose, and righteousness of cause would not atone 
for such lack of order and method. Hence the 
value and need of organization. With this, then, 
are we now only concerned. We are thinking 
to use Bishop Butler's simile, not about what 
constitutes the man, the living agent, but about 
those organs of sense and movement which mean 
so much to a man, but yet are no essential parts 

1 Art of Religion XXXIV. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



of him. Our inquiry will thus be seen to be not 
about the being, the esse, but about the well- 
being, the bene esse, of the Church. 

We do well to speak on this subject, since there 
is not merely no little confusion but that also 
where we should least expect it. Among even 
Church people some do not seem to understand 
that, while such things as baptism, holy commun- 
ion, bishops, belong essentially to the Church's 
constitution, dioceses, archbishops, rectors, ves- 
tries, and the like belong to her temporal organi- 
zation only, and that these latter — name and thing 
— may be dispensed with, and the Church still be 
here. Poorer without them she would be, like a 
soldier suddenly deprived in the midst of battle 
of his ordinary weapons ; or like an artisan, de- 
prived of his tools and reduced to use only his 
mere hands ; yet she would still be the Church, 
and her authority, inalienable rights, and divine 
constitution would remain untouched. 

The first temporal feature of the Church we 
will now consider is the parish. Historically, 
save in name, it had not any pre-eminence. The 
diocese, once so-called, was first ; but as the 
parish is the channel through which all our 
knowledge of the Church is now usually attained, 



132 



IX THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



we give it precedence. What, then, is a parish ? 
We once knew a country rector who, on resign- 
ing his charge, handed it over to his successor 
along with his horse and carriage, and well-fur- 
nished rectory. His children, not entirely ap- 
preciating the situation, were at a loss to know 
why their father had given up everything to the 
stranger, and their little minds were somewhat 
troubled. But what puzzled them most of all 
was this very word parish. Their father had 
given up that. But what was that? It wasn't a 
horse, it wasn't a garden, it was not a house — 
then what was it? They could not tell. We 
fear that they did not stand alone in their diffi- 
culty. Well, then, a parish is a territorial dis- 
trict specifically assigned to a minister's spiritual 
care. Beyond the bounds of this limited district 
he has no individual jurisdiction. Outside of it 
he cannot claim as a right to hold a single relig- 
ious service nor do any ecclesiastical work. Do 
we ask why this exclusive authority on the one 
hand, and its curious limitation on the other : 
The Church, like her Master, gives to every man 
his own special work, and just as Nature abhors a 
vacuum, so she abhors divided responsibility. 
She gives to each one his definite place and defi- 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 1 33 



nite work, and makes him specially responsible 
for his part of the vineyard. 

Every parish is governed by a vestry. This 
body, consisting of the rector, and a fixed num- 
ber of his lay parishioners, has come to possess 
very considerable powers. Its members are usu- 
ally charged with the care of their local church 
affairs and all its property. When a legal cor- 
poration (as is commonly the case), their lawfully 
official acts are held to be binding upon such cor- 
poration. Their duties are many, but their most 
important duty, from every point of view, is in 
the selection of a clergyman to be the rector of 
their parish and the head of their own body, 
whenever there is a vacancy. The vestry, how- 
ever, is seldom a close corporation : its members 
are not autocrats. They are usually elected an- 
nually by the Parishioners ; and once a year, at 
or about Easter, at least half of them must retire 
voluntarily, or be voted out of the vestry itself, 
even if, as often happens, the parishioners imme- 
diately vote them in again. 

Very interesting is it here to note, that our 
American system of Church appointments is 
practically a modern application of a custom 
which is not only at once the most extensive and 



134 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the most ancient of all forms of such appoint- 
ments in England, but is, of all others, that one 
which is thought, and rightly thought, to be 
utterly out of harmony with nineteenth century 
ideas and progress. We mean what is known as 
private " patronage." To American Churchmen 
it is theoretically incomprehensible that any one 
man should have the power or, even if legally 
possessed of it, be willing to exercise the right, 
of autocratically choosing a clergyman on his own 
responsibility for a whole congregation. Yet the 
origin of the right was both natural and simple. 
For this, however, we must look far back to the 
days of early Saxon Christianity. At that time, 
throughout immense tracts, there were no actu- 
ally resident clergy. It was the era of missionary 
work; not yet the era of settled and parochial 
activity. All offerings were paid into a central 
fund administered by the bishop, the clergy lived 
for the most part in monastic communities, and 
there was no ready supply of local needs. It 
was not at all a satisfactory plan, and we owe its 
abolition to Archbishop Theodore, the first Pri- 
mate of all England. That Archbishop sought to 
map out England into distinct parishes, and to 
provide a local pastor for every parish ; and for 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



135 



this he laid foundations like a wise master-build- 
er. He urged the local land-owners to contrib- 
ute to special funds for the settling of a resident 
pastor there among them. He yet further en- 
couraged " the rich in this world to be ready to 
give and glad to contribute, " by causing a na- 
tional law to be enacted that any one who should 
build a Church and make permanent provision 
for a local priest, should have the privilege of 
selecting that priest ; the same privilege to de- 
scend to his heirs after him. 

This plan so far succeeded that endowments 
and private patrons came in together on the 
flood-tide, until to-day there are 6,500 such Par- 
ishes out of a grand total of 21,400 in all England. 
This system in the past worked great good, un- 
told good, and it has not been the least of the 
blessings the first Primate of all England be- 
queathed to the national Church of his adopted 
land. It has still its advantages, but it is now 
too manifestly out of harmony with present 
thought to be seriously defended. To us, how- 
ever, it is chiefly interesting as containing the 
germ of our own plan of filling vacant parishes. 
In America our vestries continue to select the 
rectors, as we have said, yet only on behalf of 



13*5 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

the parishioners, as their deputies and in their 
names; and these parishioners not unnaturally 
think that, since they have built a Church and 
made provision for a rector, they may, subject to 
the bishop's approval, rightly make their own se- 
lection of him from the ranks of the clergy. 

Wheresoever the Church exists she is usually 
divided into dioceses : "Ecclesiastical divisions" 
these " of any kingdom or state, subject to the an- 
thority of a bishop," who is entrusted with the 
spiritual supervision of all the churches within 
the limits of his diocese or division. From the 
fact that each bishop used to have his "cathe- 
dra," or chair, in some leading church of his 
diocese, such church is for that reason most 
commonly called the cathedral, and not infre- 
quently "the Bishop's Church." But in a very 
real sense all the churches within his diocese may 
be so called, since daily upon him, as once upon 
S. Paul, comes the care of them all. 

A bishop has no local jurisdiction outside of 
his own diocese ; any more than has a priest out- 
side of his own parish —but within it he is su- 
preme. Unlike the priest, he has no ecclesias- 
tical superior. Nevertheless he is bishop to his 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



137 



diocese merely. There is nothing new 7 in this 
territorial limitation of his powers. Thus was S. 
James, Bishop of Jerusalem. Thus, too, was 
Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus ; and Titus, Bishop 
of Crete. Yet at first, this custom was not uni- 
versal. The Celtic Church, which established 
Christianity in Ireland and Scotland, and from 
which our own is in part descended, knew no such 
custom. Instead of a diocesan episcopacy, that 
Church had, as we have already said, a system 
by which bishops and clerg)' lived in communi- 
ties as head-quarters of a common work, from 
whence they literally went everywhere preach- 
ing the word. The so-called episcopate in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church is organized appar- 
ently much upon the same plan. Without a ter- 
ritorial diocese, or any local responsibility, these 
Methodist " bishops'' seem to be some counter- 
part of the old Celtic bishops, yet lacking the 
essential apostolic succession. It is in the Holy 
Catholic Church that to-day diocesan episco- 
pacy alone exists. 1 There are, it is true, many 
bishops in our own church no longer ruling over 

1 We are not unaware of the Roman practice of making bishops with- 
out actual Dioceses, but even in their case the theory is that each has a 
diocese somewhere ; e.g. , Archbishop Satolii is styled the Bishop of Le- 
panto. 



138 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

dioceses, commonly those who through sickness 
or age have resigned them ; but they are bishops 
still— once a bishop, always a bishop. They are 
as retired colonels without regiments; retired 
captains without ships. Their orders are still 
valid, their record is still honorable, their title 
untouched, their inherent powers what they ever 
were 5 but yet they may no more claim to exer- 
cise their powers in another bishop's diocese than 
a retired sea captain can claim the right to com- 
mand the particular ship in which he may happen 
to be travelling. Thus they are bishops without 
bishoprics, yet bishops still, and such they will be 
until death. 

A diocese, which is thus the sphere and area of 
a single bishop's work, may embrace a continent, 
or may be as small as some islet of the sea. In 
the United States this disparity in size is perhaps 
more observable than anywhere else; still, by 
canon law " no new Diocese can be formed here 
which shall contain less than six Parishes or less 
than six Presbyters.'" There is, however, no 
legislative limit in the other direction. The Dio- 
cese of New York contained in 1S94 366 Clergy ; 
it might conceivably contain 1,000. 

1 Const., p. 3. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



139 



In England and her Colonies there is no limit 
at all. The Island of St. Helena has but three 
Clergy under the bishop of " the smallest Diocese 
in the world." 

The diocese is a complete and integral part of 
the Church of Christ. In America we have over 
seventy, and these so entirely cover the face of 
the country that there is no portion of it not under 
the care of a bishop. Everywhere the Church 
has gone, to the full measure of her ability, form- 
ing her dioceses, placing her bishops and build- 
ing her churches, and tendering the blessings of 
the Gospel to all. Her offers may be indeed re- 
jected as involving the unpardonable assumption 
that she is the Church, yet she is there for all who 
will receive her, seeking, however feebly, to emu- 
late the great Father Himself, " for he maketh 
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 1 

The diocese is governed by a council. 2 This is 
a body somewhat analogous to the vestry. It 
meets usually but once a year, its members be- 
ing composed of the bishop, the clergy, and 
certain laymen chosen by their respective par- 
ishes, one for every clergyman. The bishop 

1 Matt. v. 45. 2 Or convention. 



140 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



always presides. The objects of the council have 
in part been so clearly stated by the present 
Bishop of Fond du Lac that we do not hesitate to 
use his language. Its members " assemble first of 
all, to offer up high praise and Eucharist to God 
for His manifold blessings vouchsafed to them, 
and to beseech His Majesty for some further 
largeness of His bounty, some charismata of His 
gifts of grace. It is, therefore, with special sol- 
emnity and careful ceremonial and musical ac- 
companiment we celebrate the divine mysteries. 
The conciliar celebration is not therefore to be 
regarded as a mere appropriate opening religious 
service to the more important business exercises. 
It is one of the chief purposes of our assembling. 
It is one of the highest works of the council. It 
is the coming together of all the presbytery 
and representative laymen to make their united 
solemn Eucharistic offering to Almighty God." 1 
The more practical duties of the Council are the 
framing of the canons and laws, and the taking 
of measures for the general welfare of all the 
churches and of ail the souls within the diocesan 
limits. Its goal is the filling of the Father's house 
with those who are yet in the streets of the city, 

1 Charge of Bishop Grafton, 1894. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



141 



and in the lanes and highways of the great world 
around. It stands for all organized effort of 
the Church over that special part of the vine- 
yard. 

Where dioceses are so large as to render some 
intermediate organization necessary between the 
diocese and the parish, the necessary link has, of 
late years, been often supplied b)~ what are called 
indifferently deaneries, archdeaconries, and con- 
vocations, a different nomenclature obtaining in 
different places for the same thing. Thus what 
is a Convocation in Pennsylvania and a Deanery 
in Western New York, with a dean as its head in 
each case, is in New York City and Diocese an 
Archdeaconry, with an archdeacon as its head. 
It is the same in Maryland. 

The terms Rural Dean and Archdeacon, which 
have reference to these intermediate forms of or- 
ganization, are somewhat similar to those of 
canon, rector, and the like. They do not, that is, 
indicate the existence of another order in the 
ministry ; the divine constitution of the Church 
knowing only bishops, priests, and deacons. 
They are but officers for the better administra- 
tion of the local affairs of the Church, admission 
to their office being not by ordination, but by 



142 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OE EAITH 



simple appointment of the bishop or some prop- 
erly organized and representative ecclesiastical 
body; they are parts, that is, of the organization 
of the diocese, Their special task is the carina 
tor the missionary work within diocesan limits, 
and in this they have abundantly justified their 
existence. 

Although such officers are somewhat new in the 
American Church, they are by no means new in 
the Church at large. Athanasius won his fame 
not as Patriarch, but as Archdeacon of Alexan- 
dria. They have existed, too, for ages in the 
Church of England ; but if one may credit the 
story oft told of the late Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, that being on one occasion asked what an 
archdeacon's duties were, he humorously replied 
" That they were to perform archdiaconal func- 
tions," it would seem as if these venerable officials 
were at times like what a coat of paint would be 
on the exterior of a magnificent Gothic Cathe- 
dral, if it be possible to imagine such a thing. 

In this country, however, they have been as- 
signed definite duties, with altogether encourag- 
ing results. The Bishop of Xew York, in speak- 
ing at the one hundred and tenth 1 Convocation 

1 September 27, 1S93. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



143 



of his diocese, on the Canon creating archdea- 
cons some ten years before, said that at the time 
but little or nothing was expected from it by 
many. It was regarded as an archaic mechanism, 
foreign, superannuated, and rather unduly preten. 
tious. " But," he went on to say, " I am persuaded 
that by this time such persons are, most of them, 
of another mind. No one who has acquainted 
himself with it can be insensible to the greatly 
increased efficiency of our missionary work all 
over the Diocese, as witnessed increasingly by its 
fruit. That this is due first to the fidelity of our 
missionaries, and of loyal laymen and women who 
labor with them, there can be little doubt ; but 
that these labors have been guided, encouraged, 
economized, and in every way wisely administered, 
with most important and inspiring results, by my 
dear brethren, the Archdeacons of the Diocese — 
of this there can be no doubt at all. They have 
strengthened the hands of every missionary ; they 
have cheered the hearts of the lonely and strug- 
gling lay people ; they have seized opportunities, 
and laid foundations, and filled vacancies, and 
found fellow-workers ; they have checked waste- 
fulness and economized men and means ; they 
have lifted the standard of discipline, and widened 



144 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the reach of the Church's work and influence in 
ways which it now has come to pass that all men 
know and own." Evidently, archdeacons have 
here more than justified their existence, and some 
future Primate of America will not have the 
knotty problem to solve which tried the wit of his 
Grace of Canterbuiw. 

When a group of Dioceses are allied together a 
Province is formed ; this being simply an aggre- 
gate of Dioceses for legislative purposes within 
the limits of a National Church. The chief bishop 
of every Province is generally styled Archbishop 
and Primate, or simply Primus. Of these Pro- 
vinces there are several in the Anglo-Catholic 
Church. England contains two, those of Canter- 
bury and York ; Ireland two, Armagh and Dub- 
lin ; Canada two, Canada and Rupert's Land. 
It is proposed to create similar Provinces in 
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India, 
with Archbishops at Sydney, Cape Town, and 
Calcutta, and possibly also at Melbourne and 
Brisbane. The American Church has, properly 
speaking, no Provinces. But in this matter she 
too seems to be moving in the same direction as 
her sister Churches. " It is significant," wrote the 
late Dr. John Cotton Smith, " that there has been 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



a gradual movement in the Church which has in 
it the germs of the provincial system. M 

If needed anywhere in the whole world, the 
provincial system is certainly needed in America. 
The two Provinces of the Canadian Church, only 
consolidated in 1893, contain, the one but nine, the 
other but seven, dioceses. Even the Province of 
Canterbury, the premier province of the Anglican 
Church, contains but twenty-three ; yet the juris- 
diction of the American Church, covering a conti- 
nent larger than Europe, has no Provinces at all! 

This grouping together of contiguous dioceses 
which shall not be too large for common effective 
legislation, has therefore now become one of our 
greatest needs. So vast, indeed, is the area of 
this Church's operations that if relief be not af- 
forded there is some danger of the net breaking. 
As matters stand, bishops on the Pacific slope 
are too far from their brother bishops on the At- 
lantic seaboard for any common legislation to be 
equally helpful. It would, of course, be different 
in a Church which had but half a dozen bishops, 
but in one which possesses fourscore, the Prov- 
ince must come if the government of the Church 
is to be anything more than a name. 

And if this be the case now, what will it be 
10 



146 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



fifty years hence ? We can but prophesy, though 
not altogether blindly. A moment's considera- 
tion will show that if the future growth of this 
Church shall be as its past, then something akin 
to our civil organization must be the result. As 
well might American citizens attempt to dispense 
with the system of Statehood as for the Church 
to dispense with the Province. Just think what, 
in half a century, say, Texas will be? That 
State has now 265,780 square miles of territory ; 
more than all the New England Dioceses, com- 
bined together, contain many times over. It is 
safe to say that before that time she will have 
been divided into several Dioceses. But Texas 
stands not alone. Growth is universal. The 
Church cannot, therefore, long postpone action if 
she would ; and it may be that, ere the first quar- 
ter of the twentieth century has run its course, 
the Bishops of such cities as Boston, New York, 
Chicago, San Francisco, and New Orleans, will 
attend that Conference as Metropolitans of the 
American Church, with a Primate of all America 
at their head, all looking to Canterbury as their 
Patriarchal See, and bound to it, not by the iron 
chains of Ultramontanism, but by the golden 
links of freedom and affection. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



147 



Nor is all this tending toward the establish- 
ment of a head after the model of Rome. The 
Primate of the Anglican Communion claims no 
such dangerous pre-eminence. His type is not 
the Czar of all the Russias, but the head of a 
Constitutional Government. For us the true 
head is Christ alone. We need not be afraid, 
therefore, of such titles as Archbishop, or Pri- 
mate. They merely indicate chiefs among equals. 
They who are ex-officio the chairmen at the gath- 
erings of their brethren, their spokesmen, and 
they who take the initiative in united effort. But 
they are of no higher order than the youngest 
member of the episcopate, who is as much a 
bishop as the Bishop of Rome or the Archbishop 
of Canterbury. 1 

What the Diocesan Council is to the diocese, 
that the National Council 2 is to the Church at 
large. This body consists of two Houses : The 
Upper, or House of Bishops, in which all Dio- 
cesan, Missionary, and Coadjutor Bishops have 
seats ; and the House of Deputies, made up of 

1 " Wherever there is a Bishop, whether it be at Rome, or at Eugn- 
bium, whether it be at Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it be at 
Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one, and his priesthood is one. 
. . . All alike are successors of the Apostles." S. Jerome, A. D. 393. 

2 Or General Convention. 



148 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



elected Deputies, four clerical and four lay from 
every diocese, and one delegate of each order 
from every missionary jurisdiction. Its powers 
are very extensive. It represents the National 
Church in session assembled, and its judgment is 
final in all matters affecting that Church. Its two 
Houses meet separately, and no act is valid with- 
out the concurrence of both. Such matters as 
the alteration of the Praver-Book, the setting 
forth of new services, the selection of hymns to 
be sung, the founding of new dioceses, the altera- 
tion of the bounds of old ones, are all the work 
of the National Council ; which for unique inter- 
est takes its place among the greatest legislative 
bodies of the world. Indeed, membership in this 
august body is, rightly considered, one of the 
highest honors that the American Church can 
confer on her laity or clergy. In fine, the work 
of this Council is the same as that in which the 
Apostles of the Lord themselves engaged when 
they met in the first Council ever held. 

But the American Church is infinitely larger 
than the Church of Apostles which met at Jeru- 
salem. One realizes this on seeing the delegates 
come up from the ends of this vast Continent. 
Their assembling together is an imposing sight. 



THE HUMAN ORGANIZATION 



149 



Yet, as now constituted, the National Council 
must go. Its day is past ; its place will prob- 
ably be taken by a body meeting not oftener than 
once in ten years, as the Pan-Anglican Confer- 
ence meets now, and composed of only the Pri- 
mates of Provinces, with certain elected Bish- 
ops, or it may be, of all the Bishops of the 
American Church, with or without, as the wis- 
dom of the Church shall decide, a small body of 
chosen clerical and lay delegates as a second 
House. 

Oh, may this great Church, a true National 
Church, whose Constitution is in striking har- 
mony with that of the land in which she dwells 
" look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, 
clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners!" 1 May every blessing spoken to the 
seven Churches of Asia be hers, and may she 
need none of the warnings. May it be said of 
her, " The Lord added to the church daily such 
as should be saved." 2 She is not unworthy of 
the honor, she is no fragment, but the Church of 
and for the American people. 

For this, whenever she is in session assembled, 



1 Song of Solomon vl 10. 

2 Acts ii. 47. 



ISO IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



and at other times as God gives us power and 
grace, well may we pray in the words of our 
Prayer-Book : 

" Almighty and everlasting God, who by thy 
Holy Spirit didst preside in the Council of the 
blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through 
thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to 
the end of the world; We beseech thee to be 
with the Council of thy Church assembled in thy 
Name and Presence. Save them from all error, 
ignorance, pride, and prejudice ; and of thy great 
mercy vouchsafe, we beseech thee, so to direct, 
sanctify, and govern them in their work, by the 
mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that the com- 
fortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preached, 
truly received, and truly followed, in all places, 
to the breaking down the kingdom of sin, Satan, 
and death; till at length the whole of thy dis- 
persed sheep, being gathered into one fold, shall 
become partakers of everlasting life ; through the 
merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
Amen. 



IX. 



CAUSES OF THE GREAT PROGRESS OF 
THE CHURCH 



IX. 



CAUSES OF THE GREAT PROGRESS OF 
THE CHURCH 

"The force of his own merit makes his way." 

—Henry VIII., Act I., Sc. r. 

Our Church in America is growing more rap- 
idly than any other member of the Catholic Fam- 
ily. She stands facile princeps, easily first. Her 
growth has been so remarkable that there is 
probably not another religious body which has 
within the past half century gone forward as she 
has. Indeed, her advance has been phenomenal. 
It has been at once the wonder of the indifferent, 
the envy of the unfriendly, 1 and the joy of her 
faithful children. 

» "And what is still more remarkable is that the movement has been 
stronger than the rankest Protestantism, stronger than the Bishops, 
stronger than the lawyers and the Legislature. A spasmodic protest, a 
useless prosecution, a Delphic judgment, and the movement continues 
and spreads, lodging itself in Anglican homes and convents, in schools, 
Churches, and even Cathedrals, until it is rapidly covering the country. 
Has there ever been a more marvellous change, and this within half a 
century ! " — Vide Address by Cardinal Vaughan to the Catholic Truth 
Society Conference, at Preston, England, September 10, 1894. 



154 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Her extraordinary growth suggests and even 
necessitates the inquiry as to what is its cause. 
The primary cause is simply that she is the 
Church of Christ. So long as the Church is true 
to Christ and relies on him, she must grow and 
prosper. 

Students of Gibbon's " Decline and Fall ' will 
remember the five famous secondary reasons 
which he assigns for the spread of Christianity. 
Have we anything in a similar way to assign 
as the cause of the rapid progress of our dear 
Church ? 

This is our present inquiry. To what is her 
onward advance due ? In truth, there is no one 
cause, there are many causes, like the links of a 
mighty chain. 

(i) W e name first the clearing away of misun- 
derstandings, by which she has become better 
known, more appreciated, and, if not revered and 
loved, at least esteemed and respected. 

She was long thought of as merely a foreign 
Church. She is now acknowledged to be foreign 
only in the sense in which outside of the Holy 
Land all Christian Churches are foreign: for 
Jerusalem is the Mother of us all. 

Of course there is a sense in which we can 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



155 



rightly speak of a Church as " foreign." There 
is, e.g., in our midst a Church organization to 
which no other name can properly be given. 
That particular organization is, in fact, nothing 
but a fragment of the national Church of Italy, 
whose alien character is suitably represented by 
an Italian Bishop, who came here unable to speak 
the English language. 1 

But it is not so with us. Men no longer doubt 
that our Church is in perfect sympathy with 
American institutions and with American ideals. 
That was a striking scene when in Baltimore, in 
1892, by the voice of her Supreme Legislative 
Council, she voluntarily relinquished some $25,000 
per annum and all claims on Government aid for 

1 Touching this Italian Bishop, the Living Church of January 26, 
1895, gives us the following choice description : " Mgr. Satolli, on a visit 
to New York, took occasion, at a reception given in his honor at the La 
Salle Institute, to define the attitude of the Roman Church to the public 
schools of the country. The speech was, as a matter of fact, read by the 
Rev. Dr. Rooker, while Mgr. Satolli supplied the fitting gestures ! They 
are described as ' appropriate and often forceful. ' The only parallel 
instance we ever heard of was the case of a man who suddenly became 
crazed during a sermon, and, advancing to the front of the church, sta- 
tioned himself just below the pulpit, and endeavored by his gesticula- 
tions to supply what he considered to be lacking in the preacher's style 
of delivery. The Italians are said to be masters of the art of gesture. 
Instances have been described where an entire speech was made per- 
fectly intelligible in this way to those who did not understand a word 
of the language. The Roman delegate might very well have dispensed 
with the services of the reader altogether." 



156 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



her Indian school work. It was not that she did 
not need the money. But she had come to look 
upon the receiving of money from the Public 
Funds as contrary to the letter and spirit of the 
American Constitution, and her duty was plain. 
She withdrew from the ranks of the benefici- 
aries, leaving it to other Christian bodies less in 
harmony with American ideals than herself, to 
scramble for the spoils and to eat of the Govern- 
ment bread ! 1 Ever mindful of the duty to pray 
for rulers, this is her method by which she up- 
holds them and points them to their own stand- 
ard, and so furthers the fulfilment of her own 
prayers. 

Nor has this been any late burst of loyalty out 
of harmony with her past. We indeed marvel 
greatly that she has ever been regarded as foreign; 
for from the days of Washington to this day her 
sons have been the famous statesmen and leaders 
of the American people. Of the fifty-five signers 
of the Declaration of Independence, over thirty- 
four were Churchmen, one only we believe a 
Roman Catholic. 2 

1 The Roman Catholic Church takes nearly one-half million dollars 
out of the treasury. Quarterly Message, vol. ii., No. 4, p. 32. 

3 " Of the fifty-five actual signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
thirty-four were Churchmen ; while at least seven other Churchmen, eli- 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



157 



(2) Her Reverent, Dignified, and Sensible 
Services.— Often do we hear something like the 
following : " I don't like your doctrine of Apos- 
tolic Succession, nor your views on Baptism, nor 
your exclusiveness, but I do like your Services. 
They are so helpful and inspiring, so congrega- 
tional, and so sweetly reasonable." This admits 
not of question or dispute. The denominations 
are beginning to pay us the highest compliment 
in their power, by copying our Services. They 
already have antiphonal singing, say our Creed, 
sing our Glorias, and have processionals. What 
they will do next, who dare say ? We are not 
sure that this is the best thing for them. Lately 
there was a sort of funeral dirge over Methodism 
in London by one who claimed to have thirty 
years experience in that city. " I affirm," said 
he, " that the leakage is a serious one. Metropoli- 
tan Methodism is losing its young men and young 
women. Where are they going, and why? They 
are going to the Church. Our liturgical services, 
with their choir-sung chants and their intoned 

gible as signers by their votes in July, or by their membership of the 
Congress in August, were providentially hindered from giving their sig- 
natures, as they had recorded their votes, for the Declaration. Twelve 
of the signers were Congregationalists ; four were Presbyterians ; three 
were Quakers ; one was a Baptist, and one was a Roman Catholic."— 
Bishop Perry, in Iowa Churchman, May, 1893. 



iS8 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



amens are training our sons and daughters to 
chafe at the simpler forms of worship, and send- 
ing them where this kind of thing is better done." 1 
Only the other day, in the North of England, " the 
grandest Non-conformist church in Europe, and 
one of the finest and most completely ecclesias- 
tical buildings reared in our time," was opened. 
Admiring descriptions were given of " the chan- 
cel, with its marble pulpit and baptistery, carved 
oak choir-stall, grand organ, elaborately carved 
panels of alabaster, and three beautiful lancet win- 
dows." A great change this from the days of Puri- 
tan simplicity, when the presence of such things 
in the Church of England was one of the principal 
counts in the indictment against her— the days 
when the founders of Non-conformity set out to 
break up organs and smash beautiful windows, 
"to break down all the carved work thereof with 
axes and hammers," and to convert baptismal 
fonts into garden - vases and horse - troughs ! 
Plainly even Puritanism no longer puts its ban 
upon the beautiful in public worship, having 
t n 1 1 ^ h t as well try " to keep down 
the rising tide of the Atlantic Ocean with a 
broom, as try to stop the movement for in- 

1 Church Bells, p. 996, November 16, 1S94. 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



159 



creasing the glory and beauty of public wor- 
ship." 

But it is not only brighter and more devoted 
Services which is the object of their search who 
come from them to us. They are craving union 
with that grand old historic Church which existed 
ages before their own began to be. Yet undoubt- 
edly the statement is true in part. Our nature 
craves something more than there is in a bald 
and frigid service, and they are unable to read 
the signs of the times who fail to appreciate this. 
It was indeed one of themselves, a prophet of 
their own, who said, " It is not always social fash- 
ion, love of music, or a languid admiration of ec- 
clesiastical performances that takes some of our 
best young people to the Episcopal Communion, 
but the need of more helpful and satisfying wor- 
ship than can be found in most non-Episcopal 
Churches. }>1 Nowhere is this seen to such an 
extent as in the " Auld Kirk" of Scotland, where 
we find not only the organs, the stained-glass win- 
dows, the elaborate music, and the Gothic archi- 
tecture, where they were formerly frowned upon : 
but in many quarters, a decided advance in the di- 
rection of the observance of the Church's Year 

1 Church Bells, April 6, 1894. 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



as well as of a more or less liturgical service. 
In one of the largest of the Established churches 
in the city of Aberdeen, there is daily service; 
our Church's Litany is used on Fridays, and the 
Apostles' Creed and collect for the day are re- 
peated at every service. Again, in the oldest and 
most important of the Edinburgh churches, S. 
Giles's (commonly though erroneously called S. 
Giles's Cathedral), the Lord's Prayer is repeated 
by the congregation, while amens and hymns are 
sung, and the service as a whole is such as, a few 
years ago, no one would have dreamed of see- 
ing in a Presbyterian kirk. Moreover, for many 
years a society known as the Church Service So- 
ciety has been in existence, whose object is the 
raising of the character of the public worship, 
and a Prayer-Book issued by this society is now 
used in several Scottish churches. 

Thus by the confession and the practice of 
those who differ from us, our Services, free from 
the barrenness on the one hand of Puritanism, and 
from the excesses and childish performances that 
so quickly turn the sublime into the ridiculous on 
the other, are a stronghold of our Zion, and a 
mighty sword in our hands. 
(3) The Possession of a Prayer-Book. — Now 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



161 



you will find our Prayer-Book where a few years 
ago its presence would have been as distasteful 
as a scarlet acolyte in a Presbyterian kirk, and 
where it would have caused a similar sensation. 
True, it is not always as ours. But the old 
Church recognizes her daughter even when clad 
in another garb, and called by another name. 
Honor to whom honor is due. Let it ring out 
that this book is the Church's child and not an- 
other's. A year or two ago, in a Detroit book- 
store, a copy of the Prayer-Book lay on the 
counter. Taking it into his hands, a young min- 
ister turned to an elder companion, and said, 
" Look, Dr. so and so, what these Episcopals have 
done. They have actually stolen our Baptismal 
Service and put it into their Book." "Hush," 
said the elder, " that was in their Book two hun- 
dred years before Ave were heard of ! " A former 
generation knew its indebtedness : the present 
knows it not. 

Now, observe what this old Book is doing. 
There are whole families coming into our Church 
to-day simply through its silent agency. A copy 
of it fallen into their hands, has been like leaven. 
Before its quiet teaching prejudices have disap- 
peared, errors have been corrected, and untaught 
ii 



102 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

by priest or deacon, or even by lay-evangelist, 
many have come to seek baptism and rest for their 
souls in the old Church of Christ. It is indeed 
one of the great unifying elements of our world- 
scattered race. In the midst of lives sordid with 
constant care and dark with the impending 
shadow of want and the darker gloom of death, 
its services, attuned to the note of ' Our Father,' 
make for one brief hour music and melody, with 
gladness and joy, in the hearts of miserable men. 
It is the constant renewed affirmation of ' God's 
English-speaking men ' of their faith in their fa- 
ther's God. For hundreds of years its solemn 
words have embodied all the highest and best 
thought of the greatest and noblest, and doubtless 
for many hundred years to come the English- 
speaking race will find the expression of their 
hopes and their aspirations in the simple but 
stately words of the Book of Common Prayer. 

(4) The Christian Year.— Again, of a like in- 
fluence has been the Christian Year. Order is 
Heaven's first law. It was well for the Church 
Militant on earth to take note of this. She has 
not put the responsibility of teaching the due 
proportion of truth upon her ministers alone. 
She has assumed that responsibility herself, by 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



163 



formulating what is called " the Christian Year." 
Churchmen are so accustomed to this cycle of 
Christian truth that they do not always know 
how great a blessing it really is. They use it, 
they love it, and even value it ; but they do not 
always comprehend how absolutely necessary it 
is for their souls' progress. 

Perhaps, as they see the denominational bodies 
generally adopting first one part of it, then an- 
other, its great value may become more apparent 
to them. Nowadays there is hardly a religious 
body which does not keep Easter ; and soon Lent 
will be as universally kept. Yet officially of Lent 
or Easter the dissenting protestant bodies know 
absolutely nothing. All their information is de- 
rived second-hand from the Church. 

Well, what is the probable end of any Christian 
body that first borrows its style of Services from 
the Church, next appropriates her Prayer-Book, 
then peers into her calendars to see when her 
Holy Days and Festivals fall, that she may observe 
them too ? For these, at all events, our Church is 
as the Hill of Zion, from whence goes " forth the 
law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

(5) Her Hold ox the Cultivated Classes. 
— In this respect our Church is the exact op- 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



posite of the Roman Catholic. The members of 
that Church are drawn largely from the illiterate 
and even the dangerous element. We say this 
not unkindly. Indeed there is no room for un- 
kindness. Of the early Christians it was said 
that among them there were not many mighty 
and not many noble. But in this nineteenth cen- 
tury, it is doubtless a serious indictment of any 
Church that she has in comparison of her num. 
bers few intellectual men in her ranks. Among 
the intellectual our Church is confessedly strong. 
Her members furnish no inconsiderable share of 
the refinement, intelligence, education, wealth, 
and religious zeal of the country, so that she has 
even been called the Church of the classes. Cu- 
riously enough, this fact has sometimes been 
made a ground of argument against her. It was 
lately said, 1 " Very many of the fashionable 
churches are closing for the heated term. The 
reverend ministers are going away to the sea- 
shore and the mountains to recuperate. In the 
meanwhile all the Catholic Churches will remain 
open, every day in the year, as well as Sundays." 
Precisely. There is a fitness in things; where 
else would they have the Clergy than with their 

1 " Pittsburg Catholic." 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



165 



congregations? Our critic is curiously short- 
sighted. He reminds us of a story told by one 1 
of our bishops : A member of the Roman Catholic 
Church was comparing unfavorably our Clergy 
with the Roman, saying that they were not as zeal- 
ous in the performance of their pastoral duties. 
" How so? " said the bishop ; " I must say that I 
had never observed that fact/' " Why, right here 
in this paper is a proof of it," said the Roman ; 
" there is the account of a priest attending a man 
on the scaffold who was about to die. I never 
heard of any of your Episcopal Clergy in such a 
place." " No," replied the bishop, " and I hope 
you never will. They don't lose any members in 
such an unhappy way. But if they were so un- 
fortunate, you can depend upon it they would be 
there to do their duty." 

(6) Her Effort toward Church Unity. — 
Whatever that effort may result in, the fact that 
she has made it will redound to her honor. Glori- 
ous things are already spoken of her. She who 
for years past had been praying that God would 
take away " our unhappy divisions," arose, with 
all the strength she had, to fight with the giant 
which has so long defied the armies of Israel. 

1 Bishop Wilmer's " Recent Past." 



1 66 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

While others were sighing for a deliverer, she 
went into the valley to fight with the Philistine. 
For this men are now honoring her. They have 
taken note that it is not her wish to remain sepa- 
rate. The simple faith to realize under God's 
blessing her own prayers has made her a power 
in the land. Her ideal may be visionary, but it 
is noble. Yet with a mighty faith she is working 
for its accomplishment. " For my brethren and 
companions' sakes : I will wish thee prosperity. 
Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God : 
I will seek to do thee good." 1 Meanwhile we 
are thankful that we are members of a Church 
which has been the first in all Christendom to 
hold out the olive branch and make a definite pro- 
posal for peace and union. 

(7) The Faithful Assertion of Her Right- 
ful Position has been of Inestimable Value 
TO Her.— Some time ago a prominent minister of 
the Baptist denomination, finding that the Bap- 
tists had increased only 36 per cent, since 1870, 
while the Episcopalians had increased 141 per 
cent, in the State of New York, and recognizing 
that the growth was not local, but was in every 
part of the United States, cast about for an 

1 Ps. cxxii,, 8, 9. 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



167 



explanation. His words are worthy of careful 
attention. He " was convinced that the true ex- 
planation of this growth is to be found in the con- 
fidence, assurance, and courage of the Episcopa- 
lian leaders. They believe that theirs is ' the 
Church/ and are not slow to assert their belief. 
That very assurance and the exclusiveness which 
comes from it, is the tower of their strength. 
They are not ashamed of their belief ; they have 
the courage of their convictions, and a large part 
of the world takes them at their own estimate. 
Here is the secret of their power." This is a clear 
and, we believe, a true judgment. It is indeed 
striking testimony, as coming from an outsider, 
that not those who are minimizing her claims, 
and making light of her Catholic heritage, break- 
ing down the middle wall of partition and con- 
demning her as exclusive, are her best friends ; 
but those who are consistently maintaining at all 
costs her inherent rights and fundamental princi- 
ples are the true builders of our Zion. 

(8) She Has Grown Through Her Trials. 
— She has come out of the furnace of affliction to 
grow all the stronger in consequence of her fiery 
ordeals. " Sub pondere cresce " (Grow under 
your load) was the motto of John Spruell, of 



168 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

Glasgow, imprisoned on the Bass P.ock in the 
Firth of Forth. This is a law of nature, which 
also has governed the Church, and she is strong 
to-day because she has borne and suffered. 

(9) The Broad and Liberal Spirit which 
characterizes the Church : the generous way in 
which she deals with her children.— She takes the 
Bible and, putting it into the hands of ail, says 
" Search the Scriptures," imposing no rules with 
respect to their reading. She has no Index Ex- 
purgatorius, no lists of forbidden books, nor does 
she put a ban upon innocent pleasures and amuse- 
ments. Her motto is : Let everyone be fully per- 
suaded in his own mind. She is trustful to a 
fault, and already she is reaping her reward. 
"Trust the people " is an old political motto. It 
has been tried by our Church and has not been, 
falsified. If the time ever should come again 
when men shall cry, " Down with her ! down 
with her, even to the ground:' 5 while wild an- 
archy sweeps through the land and foundations 
are thrown down, then her children, rising up in 
their thousands will cry, " Hold ! " 

" Woodman, spare that tree, 
Touch not a single bough ; 
In youth it sheltered me, 
And 111 protect it now ! " 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



169 



It is due in part to this spirit of trustfulness 
that distinguishes her, that she gives her laymen 
so considerable a share in all government of the 
Church. In the selection of pastors, even in the 
choice of bishops, in local Church affairs and in 
the Supreme Councils of the National Church, 
the layman's voice and the layman's vote are 
never absent. There are, indeed, those who dep- 
recate the large power which has thus been en- 
trusted to the laity ; we are not of such. On the 
contrary, we rejoice at it, believing that the cus- 
tom is not merely primitive and Apostolic, Catho- 
lic in the best and widest sense, but that it is also 
for the truest welfare of the Church herself. 

(10) Last but not Least ; She has no Poli- 
tics. — President Lincoln is credited with saying 
(to Mr. Seward, who was a churchman), " When 
I join a Church it will be the Episcopal, because 
it has neither politics nor religion. " 

The terse wisdom of the late President's epi- 
grams is well known ; we may be pardoned if we 
somewhat agree with him in this. 

The Episcopal Church has no politics. Whilst 
our Civil War was raging, like every other relig- 
ious body in our land, she felt the strain. 
Brethren were parted from brethren. But there 



170 IX THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

was no schism in the fold. Unity of faith kept 
them together. They were Churchmen first, 
politicians afterward. There were, of course, ar- 
dent spirits on both sides, who flung themselves 
into the fight. A bishop even left his diocese 
and fell as a soldier at the head of his troops. 
But as soon as the war was over all churchmen 
came together again. When the General Con- 
vention met in October, 1S65. at Philadelphia, 
Bishop Lay, of Arkansas, and Bishop Atkinson, 
of North Carolina, were present at the opening 
session — though from the South, they were still 
bishops of the Church. It was a great proof of 
the power of the Church and a happy omen for 
the future. In the pages of the Church history 
of that day, the only permanent record of the 
strife which can be found is the canon which, 
without any direct allusion to the dead Bishop 
Polk, declares : " It is the sense of this house that 
the Clergy shall not bear arms." 

But what sort of a thing is a Church without 
religion : We confess the words give us at first 
a shock. Such a Church would seem to us to be 
as a cloud without water, or salt without its 
savor. But a moment's consideration shows us 
that we have here one of those pithy sayings 



CAUSES OF PROGRESS 



171 



which made Lincoln famous the world over. For 
he was not speaking of " religion/' as S. James de- 
fines it, but as he had met with it among the sec- 
tarians, where men and women " get religion " as 
one gets a fever or a cold. The phrase is its own 
condemnation. Religion is not something which 
comes from without, but is that which is built up 
from within. First the blade, then the ear, after 
that the full corn in the ear, is its true course. 

This is the sort of religion the Church honors, 
but, alas, the other sort consisted mainly in loud 
professions of pharisaic superiority. With the 
Church, " the trivial round, the common task " is 
the ordinary course and channel of holy living 
and of holy dying. Religion is duty — religion is 
life, and Christians remembering this are to be 
as the salt in the mighty ocean, everywhere an 
unseen, silent, and all-powerful agency for final 
good. Perhaps most of all, the Church of Christ 
is growing amongst us because she stands for this 
substantial thing. 



X. 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE 
CHURCH 



X. 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE 
CHURCH 

11 Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, 
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. 1 ' 

— Pope : " Essay on Criticism." 

We have now to deal with some popular objec- 
tions against the Church. Time has been when 
our Church was regarded as the setter-forth of a 
religion so easy, that it was naively asserted there 
were but two ways of leaving her— one by dying, 
the other by being converted ! Those were days 
when the Church was commonly thought of as an 
ecclesiastical Agag, loving to walk delicately, 
and in whose sight the soul of an aristocrat was 
infinitely more precious than that of a collier or 
street organ-grinder. Who could wonder at this, 
if she only lived, as was said, on the dry husks of 
formalism ? Happily charges such as these need 
no refutation now. Yet there are four charges 



176 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



still made which demand our attention, inasmuch 
as they are widely accepted as substantially true. 
These are : 

1. That she is copying the usages of the Roman 
Church and doing her work. 

2. That she has not the Apostolic Succession 
she claims. 

3. That she is narrow, and even bigoted. 

4. That there is no uniformity, either of doc- 
trine or ritual, in her teaching and services. 

The onward march of our Church has naturally 
developed a critical spirit against her; a spirit 
extreme to mark what is clone amiss. She is as 
a city set on a hill. Envy commonly dogs the 
footsteps of success. To stand well with the mul- 
titude is to stand ill with the Iagos who are in 
jealous minority. Aristides had done the man 
who voted for his banishment no injury, as he 
himself confessed ; but it was gall and worm- 
wood to him to hear Aristides continually called 
"The Just." 

And were the Church as free from evil as she 
will be when there shall nothing enter into her 
that " defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh 
a lie/' she shall not escape calumny. The world is 
"nothing, if not critical;" therefore we must 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



177 



look the more narrowly at all accusations brought 
against her. 

The first objection we deal with is : 
1. That she is copying the usages of the Roman 
Church, and doing her work. We are told that 
she is undoing the glorious Reformation, and so 
forth — ad nauseam. This is no new charge. 
The Puritans, over three hundred years ago, 
brought it against her ; and since then, from time 
to time, it has been advanced with remarkable 
persistence. Whenever, indeed, she has attempt- 
ed to be more obedient to her own standards of 
faith and worship, and thereby better serve her 
Master, it has been the established usage to shout 
" No Popery " at her, until the cry has become 
perennial — a sort of stock objection — an item 
held over for the " silly season." 

Now, here we pause a moment to utter a pro- 
test. Romanism is not the summum malum of 
the universe. There are worse things, and en- 
shrined in this very accusation there is a worse 
thought. Rather any day would we be of Rome's 
most thorough-going disciples, a full-fledged Ul- 
tramontane—a typical Torquemada, Grand In- 
quisitor-General— than be one who, owing alle- 
giance to another Church, is but a sorry imitator 
12 



1/8 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



of a Church which his own declares has erred, not 
only in matters of ceremony, but also in matters 
of faith. A consistent papist we might honor ; a 
mere apist we can never honor. The position of 
the one is compatible with uprightness of heart 
and integrity of life ; that of the other is in- 
compatible from every aspect. The one is, after 
all, a man; the other merely a parasite. Yet mark 
this, it is of apism we are accused. We are 
charged to be, forsooth, as the daw in borrowed 
plumes, and as an ass in the lion's skin ! 

Men may, if they will, ridicule our doctrines 
and practices, call them absurd, childish, super- 
stitious, mediaeval, and the like, and we shall feel 
ourselves under no obligation to reply nor shall 
our feelings thereby be hurt. Such accusations 
are not, it may be, quite complimentary to our in- 
tellectual faculties, but they do not attack our 
moral character. When, however, we are ac- 
cused of being parasites and plagiarists, of wear- 
ing stolen plumes, of being traitors in the camp, 
then justly is the fire kindled, and at the last we 
speak with our tongue ! 

And we protest the more because this charge 
has worked very much evil. Believing it, in the 
past a few of our weak-kneed brethren have left 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



179 



us : some to find a refuge in the arms of Puritan- 
ism ; some to end all doubt and stifle all further 
inquiry, among the very enemy they both dreaded 
and yet sought, fascinated by the cry, " Come 
over to us ; ours is the only Church ; we navigate 
the only lifeboat 

' O'er life's wild, restless sea.' " 

Now, when general charges are made, to ask 
for an instance has sometimes a very sobering 
effect. A man may have worked himself up into 
a perfect white heat of excitement, but say " an 
illustration, please " — and there is peace. Popery 
has been a name to conjure with. It has been the 
red flag to the enraged bull of ultra-Protestant- 
ism ; the summons to war which no true Protes- 
tant could possibly neglect; the signal for a 
grand and united effort to free the Father's house 
from thieves masquerading in stolen vestments ! 
But this charge is, after all, but merely general, 
and we justly ask for a special case ; and this the 
more as the ground of objection is so constantly 
being changed, and we are therefore somewhat in 
danger of beating the air ! — Because the ring in 
marriage, kneeling at prayer, the surplice in the 
pulpit, the keeping of Christmas, even the episco- 



I SO IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

pate and the use of the prayer-book, have all been 
often objected to as popish. Nor are such ridicu- 
lous and unchristian objections entirely unheard 
of now. Even at this present day, the altar cross, 
prized here as a symbol of our faith, is actually 
forbidden in the Church of Ireland ! O suicidal 
blindness ! Is then the Cross of Christ the abom- 
ination of desolation, standing in the Holy Place 
where it ought not ? " Tell it not in Gath ; 
publish it not in the streets of Askelon ; lest the 
daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daugh- 
ters of the uncircumcised triumph." ] Lest even 
Hindus and Mohammedans hail such tidings with 
delight ! But >l God forbid that I should glory save 
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the 
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." 2 
Ever since the crucifixion of our Lord that cross 
has been the emblem of man's salvation, and well 
therefore may every Christian sing : 

" In the Cross of Christ I glory 

Towering o'er the wrecks of time ; 
All the light of sacred story, 

Gathers round its head sublime." 

As we ask our question, we shall probably receive 
the answer that the " six points of ritual " in use 

1 2 Sam. i. 20. . 2 q^i v j_ ^ 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



181 



in the " extreme churches" — Lights, wafer bread, 
vestments, the eastward position, the mixed chal- 
ice, incense, are all of Rome. Such is the charge. 
Ere we proceed to examine it, let us ask first, 
what is u Roman?" And we answer at once, 
that is properly called Roman, and only that, 
which is a practice, ceremony, or doctrine origi- 
nating in or peculiar to Rome. Now, tried by 
this test, those " points " are no more Roman 
than are hands or feet, hats or shoes. If 
they belong exclusively to any Church, they be- 
long to the Jewish ; for what are altar lights 
but the survival of the Temple lights to which 
Christ pointed on the Feast of Tabernacles, say- 
ing " I arn the light of the world ;" 1 and which our 
own Cranmer said should remain for that very sig- 
nification? And what is wafer bread but the un- 
leavened bread of the Jewish Passover Service ? 
What are eucharistic vestments but the ordinary 
clothes of Jewish citizens in Christ's day ? What 
is the eastward position but a survival of such 
practices as that of Daniel, who in Babylon looked 
toward Jerusalem, as he knelt upon his knees 
three times a day ? What is the mixed chalice but 
the third cup of wine which Jewish practice had 

1 John viii. 12. 



182 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



long before added to the ritual of the Passover ? 
What, after all, the use of incense but the fulfilment 
of Malachi's prophecy, that in the new Church, 
as in the old Church, " Incense should be offered 
everywhere and a pure offering. " 1 Call these 
things whatever else you will, but if you speak of 
them as " Roman," the ninety millions of Greek 
Christians will cry " Hold ! We used these things 
even before we gave Rome her Christianity, and 
we still use them. They have been and are still of 
the Catholic Church as a whole, and not of any 
one part, however large or however venerable. ,, 

Please do not misunderstand us here. We are 
not concerned with the question whether such 
points of ritual are now desirable. With that 
question we have nothing to do. S. Paul's rule, 
indeed, is clear and may well be our guide : 
" All things are lawful for me, but all things are 
not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but all 
things edify not/' 2 We need not be wiser than 
the great Apostle, who to the Jews was a Jew, 
and to the Greeks a Greek. The point at issue is 
this, and only this : Are these forms in any sense 
borrowed from Rome? And the answer, the 
emphatic answer, is, of necessity, No! 

1 Malachi i. II. 2 i Cor. x. 23. 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



I8 3 



Undoubtedly there are things which are Rome's 
own peculiar invention. The saying of prayers 
in a tongue not understanded of the people is 
Roman ; so is the mutilation of the Sacrament of 
Holy Communion; so is the elevation of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary to a throne almost above 
her Son ; so is Rome's doctrine of Purgatory 
and her doctrine of Indulgences ; so is her for- 
bidding to marry, at least since the davs of the 
heretics condemned by the Apostle S. Jude ; so 
are the Papal claims, for Rome is the only Church 
possessing a Supreme Head upon Earth, who 
would rule in the Kingdom of God and give 
it to whomsoever he will ; so is the Papal In- 
fallibility. But of these doctrines and prac- 
tices, and others as uncatholic, there is not a 
trace in our Prayer-Book, nor in our Creeds or 
standards. 

That there are those who give occasion to 
the enemy to find fault, we cannot deny. All are 
not Israel who are of Israel. But the Cluirch is 
sound. The eccentricities of misguided individu- 
als, which she gently bears with on the one side 
or the other, are indeed a hindrance, but yet not 
her fault. That she does not cast them out is due 
to that charity which suffereth long and is kind. 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



But after all, what are they in comparison of the 
vast number of her loyal sons who 

Beyond their highest joy 

Do prize her heavenly ways ; 

Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 

Her hymns of love and praise. 

There is such a sin as that of bearing false wit- 
ness. Let those who would fling the charge that 
our Church is copying Roman ritual and teaching 
Roman doctrine remember this. The one Church 
which Rome fears, the one Church whose grand 
work, rapid progress, and influential standing she 
envies, the one Church of all Churches farthest 
from her model and nearest to the Apostolic — is 
she a mere parasite and a plagiarist? Away with 
such a thought, away with it ! Even Rome is un- 
der no such delusion ! She does not claim that 
this Church is doing her work. " The Anglican 
Church," 1 says the Civitta Catollica (a Jesuit pa- 
per published in Rome), " seems to stand in the 
way of the hopes of the Jesuits, and to be the ob- 
stacle to the final victory of Rome over England/' 

2. It is Said that our Church has not the 
Apostolic Succession, which She Claims. — 
We do not propose to enter on this question now. 

1 Living Church, July 15, 1893. 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



It is like those other objections — a stock argu- 
ment, somewhat threadbare from use, and depend- 
ent for its propagation upon stout assertion rather 
than upon sober statement and proof. We are 
not greatly concerned as to what people generally 
think of our Orders. For us, Anglican Orders are 
above suspicion. If the clergy of the American 
Church are not as much priests as any others can 
ever be, they would never dare to ascend the altar 
steps to mete out the Bread of Life. We may hope 
that our Roman brethren will soon on this point 
be better informed than they now appear to be. 
The Bishop of Rome himself seems to be sharing 
this hope, for he has lately appointed a commis- 
sion to inquire into the question of their validity. 
Such kindly interest should meet with reciprocity. 
The American Church might also appoint a similar 
•commission to satisfy some of us that Roman Or- 
ders are equally valid. But whatever the report of 
the Roman commission may be, Anglican Orders 
are good enough for Anglicans ; if anyone thinks 
otherwise we are sorry for him. " A threefold 
cord is not quickly broken." 1 Our Orders are 
bound by such a cord. If they fail, all others must 
fail with them. " If the righteous scarcely be 

1 Eccl. iv, 12. 



1 86 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner ap- 
pear ? h 1 

3. Our Church is Said to Be Narrow axd 
Exclusive.— Far from being at all narrow, she 
is singularly liberal. She, e.g., grants all that 
other Christian bodies claim for their ministers, 
which is more than they commonly will do for 
ours. We are willing, writes one of our bishops, 
to allow their ministers to be what their convic- 
tions and their seals of God's approval testify 
them to be, viz., evangelists, teachers, preachers 
of the Word. But realizing as we do the greater 
illuminations and resources and potentialities of 
grace given under the fuller administrations of 
the priesthood of Christ's body, which we by 
God's mercy possess, we desire them, so much 
more worthy as many of them are than ourselves, 
to be partakers of these spiritual gifts. 2 

Thirty years ago a bishop and a priest were cross- 
ing the Coast Range of California, from Santa Cruz 
on the Bay of Monterey to the Santa Clara Valley. 
" We two," writes the priest, " were the only pas- 
sengers, and the day was full of interest, made 
especially so by the bishop's account of his many 

1 1 Peter iv. 18. 

2 Bishop Grafton quoted in Public Opinian t May 3, 1894. 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 1 8/ 

and strange adventures as missionary in the then 
new and remote Northwest. 

"Among other things, I asked him how he 
managed to get along with the many ' ministers of 
the denominations ' whom he must constantly 
meet. ' Oh/ said he, ' I generally get on with 
them famously, if only they will let me ; ' and 
I could well imagine, from his genial and kindly 
manner, that he would do so. ' But how do you 
manage it?' 'Well/ said he, £ I accept them 
on their own terms. I account them to be just 
what they claim to be — Methodist ministers, 
Baptist ministers, and what not. YVe have no 
quarrel about that. Of course they are a little 
nervous and fidgety, and sometimes complain 
that we " Episcopals do not recognize " them, and 
all that, and call us "bigoted" and "intolerant/ 1 
and other pleasant and familiar names; but I 
assure them they are entirely mistaken, we do 
recognize them fully. They, of course, express 
surprise at this ; they had never so understood it, 
and then go on and complain that it could not be 
so, because they are not admitted to our pulpits, 
and that we do not admit them to be " the same 
as ourselves." < Let us talk about that/ say I. 
' Now, you are a minister, say, a minister of the 



1 88 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

Baptist Church, or of the Methodist; I don't 
question that at all, I fully recognize the fact ; I 
recognize you fully in that capacity ; we can have 
no quarrel about it/ ' But— but—' says the 
man, that is all so; still, you do not recognize 
us as the same as yourselves, as holding office 
equal to yours.' ' Let us see about that,' I an- 
swer. ' Now, I claim to be a Bishop of the Holy 
Catholic Church, established by the Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself and His Apostles— a successor of 
those apostles in their apostleship, I trace my 
official ancestry back to the Lord Himself, who 
said : " Go, teach all nations." Now, do you 
claim to be that ? ' Of course the man answers, 
No ! and then sometimes — usually— he breaks out 
in denunciation of all such "absurd and arrogant 
nonsense ; " says there is no such thing as an 
apostolic ministry ; the Apostles are all dead long 
ago, and have no " successors ; " it is all a " fig- 
ment," an " imposition " ; " there is no priest- 
hood," and all that. I hear him patiently, and re- 
ply : " Now, my friend, don't let us quarrel, and 
call hard names. It is not right ; it is unchar- 
itable. I admit you to be all you claim. I don't 
abuse you ; I don't question your position ; can't 
you do the same ? Won't you do the same as you 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



are done by ? You call us " uncharitable M because 
we do not reckon you to be what you do not 
reckon yourselves. Think it over, friend, and 
tell me where the intolerance and want of charity 
come in/ So I manage them, and generally they 
have no more to say." 

Narrow ! Exclusive ! We are of an exactly con- 
trary opinion. Surely scales must be on the eyes 
of those who make this charge. There is in reality 
no Church so broad. Seeking, it may be, baptism 
or confirmation from her, you apply to a bishop 
or priest of the Church to know what is required 
of you, and from each one you hear but this: 
Belief in the Apostles' Creed, This was all the 
Church required from the Ethiopian eunuch ; this 
is all she asks of yon. 

But you say : Am I not required to believe in 
the apostolic succession ? In baptismal regenera- 
tion, and other like teachings ? Not unless your 
conscience tells you to. Some, even of her clergy, 
do not so believe. We wish they did ; for we are 
convinced, not merely of the truth of the doc- 
trines, but of the great helpfulness which a firm 
conviction of their truth brings. Yet the Church 
willingly receives them as if they did. She in 
fact rejects none who hold the great verities of 



190 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles* 
Creed. 

But once more you ask : Is there not a rule that 
none can be admitted to Holy Communion unless 
he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be 
confirmed ? To be sure she has such a rule, and to 
us it seems sweet reasonableness and simplicity 
itself. Under it, even a Presbyterian or Methodist 
can be admitted to confirmation without neces- 
sarily becoming an Episcopalian. The Church 
will confirm anyone reverently seeking the gift, 
as she confirmed the famous Methodist minister, 
Dr. Adam Clark. She does so, moreover, with- 
out asking what your views are about Church 
government or non-liturgical services. Again, still 
unmindful of those questions, when once con- 
firmed, she says, lovingly: " Ye who do truly 
and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in 
love and charity with your neighbors, and in- 
tend to lead a new life, following the command- 
ments of God, and walking from henceforth in 
his holy ways, draw near with faith, and take 
this holy Sacrament to your comfort." All that 
she asks is that you hold the essentials of the 
Catholic faith, that faith once delivered to the 
saints, and be desirous of leading a holy life. 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



191 



Satisfied on this point, she insists upon no further 
tests, and forthwith looks upon you as her own 
child. She henceforth treats you neither better 
nor worse than those who are in full sympathy 
with all her teachings and practices. Is there an- 
other communion in all Christendom that will do 
the same ? Our Church has one simple rule, open 
to all to keep ; pledging them to no more than a 
living faith in the Son of God. But she does ask 
this without respect of persons. Yet whatever 
your answer be, she never meets you at the fords 
of Jordan, and slays you without mercy if you 
cannot say her Shibboleth ! 

4. We Differ Far Too Widely in the 
Character of Our Services. — We must be 
pardoned if we call attention to the contradic- 
tory character of these objections. Still, not to 
be over-critical, we admit we do differ widely. 
There is in very truth a wonderful diversity of 
ritual in our services, and up to a certain point, 
even in matters of faith. Here are two churches, 
not far apart in distance, but far apart in all else. 
One is " Low," the other " High." In these two 
churches the very vestments of the clergy tell 
their own story. In the one we see a surplice of 
such flowing dimensions that it is in excellent 



192 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



keeping with a black stole of like heroic propor- 
tions, which gives to its wearer a sad, funereal ap- 
pearance. In the other we see what is called a 
" cotta," of dimensions so exceedingly slender 
that dire poverty seems to be its only justification 
or plea. These things are typical — typical of the 
men, of their teachings, of their churches, and of 
their services. A great distance parts them 
asunder. There is, however, between these two 
extremes, another brother who, being all things 
to all men, calls himself " Broad." You cannot 
classify him. You can never predict what he will 
do or say. He is one day attending the open- 
ing services of a new denominational church in 
his vicinity, and the next " assisting at High 
Mass." He is, the world says, a many-sided man ; 
whole-souled ; a veritable tower of strength to 
his Church. This may be so, but how can that 
Church which claims him as her minister be nar- 
row ? 

Now, for this diversity we are thankful. To us 
it is no objection ; on the contrary, it is a strong 
recommendation. It is an evidence of life, of vig- 
orous life. Human nature is not to be bottled up 
and laid upon a shelf. 

It was never intended to be so cribbed, cabined, 



POPULAR OBJECTIONS 



193 



and confined. Look around. Is there anywhere 
this terrible uniformity for which some crave ? Is 
the sky the same day after day ? Is the weather 
the same ? Are all the leaves of the trees cut af- 
ter the same pattern, faultlessly alike in size and 
color, shape and appearance? Are men and 
women all alike in brains and strength and good- 
ness ? No such uniformity do we see. Dull mo- 
notony you cannot find. Diversity means life ; 
uniformity, death. Everything that God has 
made is noted for its variety, and it would be a 
dull, heavy, and uninteresting world if it were not 
so. Variety is Nature's charm. 

Variety's the very spice of life, 
That gives it all its flavor. 

Once in the long history of the Anglican Church 
this diversity was sought to be ended by the arm 
of strength. Odo, Bishop of Salisbury, attempted 
it and failed, and the Church suffered for years 
in consequence of the attempt. 

And we are not in sympathy with any movement 
which would seek to end it now. The great 
beauty of the Episcopal Church is that it is wide, 
as human nature is wide. Do you love the beau- 
tiful in art? You will find it in the more ornate 
*3 



194 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



services of the Church. In a day when the beau- 
tiful is being cultivated everywhere, she gives 
your soul full play. Are you puritanically in- 
clined ? Does an ornate ritual serve no good 
purpose for you, rather hindering than helping 
the devotional spirit ? She is ready to give you 
a service that will help you, and make your heart 
leap with joy ! 

We do not seek cast-iron uniformity, since God 
did not make us uniform by nature. The Charity 
School where the inmates all dress alike in sober 
gray and wear garments all cut to one pattern 
and almost one size, is not our model. 

Thus the objection is no objection at all but a 
gain, and one of our most prized possessions. As 
we value unity in essentials and charity in all 
things, so do we value perfect liberty in all 
those matters which touch not the essential and 
eternal verities of the Catholic faith. This is the 
heritage of the Saints, and in teaching us to prize 
it doth this Church rule us prudently with all her 
power. 



XI. 

THE BIBLE 



XL 



THE BIBLE 

" Within this ample volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries. 
Happiest they of human race 
To whom their God has given grace 
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
To lift the latch, to force the way ; 
And better had they ne'er been born 
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." 

—Sir Walter Scott. 

Apart from its claim to be God's Word to man, 
and from all that that claim involves, the Bible, 
simply on account of its venerable age, may well 
challenge the respectful attention of mankind, 
Some of its writings are the most ancient known. 
To trace them to their source involves a jour- 
ney far back into antiquity — even as far back as 
some 1,500 years before Christ. On this account, 
then, do we value the Bible— that it tells us what 
no other book can. If by any chance it could be 
seen to be untrustworthy, history would then be 



198 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



but as a book out of which the earlier chapters 
had been torn away ! 

It opens with the Pentateuch, or Five Books 
of Moses, recording the story of God's dealings 
with his people Israel. The succeeding books of 
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, and Chroni- 
cles carry on that story until, under King Solo- 
mon, the tribes of Israel reach their golden age, 
and forthwith, alas ! enter upon that decline which 
paused not until the remnant of them were exiles 
in Babylon. In the books which follow — of Ezra 
and Nehemiah — we read of their home-coming 
and the rebuilding of their city and temple. 
Then one more book — that of Esther — tells us a 
tale of the captivity, and the story for a while 
ceases. 

Parallel with these historical records there are 
five other books of a different character — books of 
sacred song and philosophical discussion, of sweet 
allegory and pithy proverb — all written in the 
measured flow of Hebrew poetry. One of these 
— the Book of Psalms — has brought consolation to 
generations ever since ; another — Ecclesiastes — 
was, according even to Renan, the only charming 
book ever written by a Jew. 

Sixteen prophetical books follow next in order. 



THE BIBLE 



" The prophecy came not in old time by the will 
of man; but holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." 1 Isaiah, who lived 
some eight hundred years before Christ, was the 
first of these ; and Malachi, who lived four cen- 
turies after him, was the last. Then for four 
centuries more there is an unbroken silence. 

Next the four Gospels give to the world an 
all-too-short account of the earthly life of the Son 
of God. These are followed by the book of the 
Acts of the Apostles, wherein we are told of the 
rise and progress of the Church during its first 
thirty years; then follow twenty -one Epistles 
written by three or four of the chief Apostles; 
and last of all the book of The Revelation of S. 
John the Divine, which closes forever the sacred 
volume. This last book is as sweet music to the 
ear. Its writer, " the disciple whom Jesus loved," 
reveals his mystic visions of the future of the 
Church and of the eternal purposes of God, as 
they are being unrolled in history, foreshadowing 
the final victory and the eternal crowning of the 
glorified Christ, King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords ! 

Sixty books are there in all — a library indeed— 

1 2 Peter i. 21. 



200 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



written by some forty different writers, among 
whom are fishermen and herdsmen, shepherds and 
physicians, lawgivers and lawyers, priests and 
kings. Begun, as we have said, 1,500 years B.C., 
this library was not completed until a.d. 96. But, 
though we group the books together, we are con- 
scious that the silence between Malachi and the 
Gospels is as the ocean which parts the Old 
World from the New, and, as naturally and as 
rightly as we speak of an Old World and a New, 
so do we in like manner speak of the Old and the 
New Testaments. 

And yet, as there is but the one world, so is there 
here in unity of thought and purpose but the one 
Book. When Mohammed was asked for a miracle, 
he offered the Koran. The Christian, thinking of 
its wondrous unity, might more reasonably offer 
the Bible. Throughout it there runs continuously 
but one and the same teaching. Never mind who 
the particular author may be, or what the outward 
form of his teaching, there is one thought only — 
one root-idea — running through it all. In the Old 
Testament that thought is " Messiah cometh." In 
the New, it is " Messiah hath come," and the old 
maxim stands approved: All roads in the Bible 
lead to Christ. 



THE BIBLE 



201 



This unity is indeed more than marvellous ; it 
is divine : 

" Whence, but from Heaven, could men unskilled in arts, 
In several ages born, in several parts, 
Weave such agreeing truths ? Or how, or why 
Should they conspire to cheat us with a lie ? " 

Next, we are to speak of " the difficulties in the 
Bible." 

The Bible does not come to us unencumbered 
with difficult}'. What worth having does, except 
the great phenomena of Nature ? The beautiful 
rain and the warm sunshine come down for our 
welfare, be our negligence what it may. But it 
is not so in other matters. Gold is not showered 
down upon us. Pearls are not washed up at our 
feet. That which is better than either, a beauti- 
ful and lovely character, is not gained without an 
effort, not retained without a struggle. We may, 
therefore, expect to find difficulties in Scripture 
as we do in Nature, and the more, since Scripture 
itself recognizes their existence ; for one portion 
of it bears this witness to another portion : " In 
which are some things hard to be understood, 
which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest 
unto their own destruction." 1 

1 2 Pet. iii. 16. 



202 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



What are these difficulties ? 

1. The Scriptures were written in strange lan- 
guages — the Old Testament for the most part in 
Hebrew, and the New in Greek. Now, Hebrew 
as such is no longer a spoken language ; in its 
ancient form it is, like the Latin, practically dead. 
The New Testament has come down to us in 
Greek, but yet not free from textual problems. 
Here, then, is our first difficulty. The story of 
God's dealing with His people is not revealed to 
us in the tongue in which we were born, nor 
yet even in languages any longer spoken in their 
purity. 

2. There is also a wide difference in the age and 
style of the different writings. This is rather a 
complication of the first. Physicians tell us that 
complications always increase danger. Imag- 
ine a volume containing Anglo-Saxon chronicles 
and a part of the Doomsday Book, some of Csed- 
mon's poems and Bede's " Ecclesiastical History," 
with a treatise by Duns Scotus or Sir Thomas 
More, the Provisions of Oxford with the Declara- 
tion of Independence, some of Chaucer's tales and 
three or four of Carlyle's essays, a volume of Bar- 
row's sermons with a report of the Lexow Com- 
mittee, Longfellow's poems with a chapter or two 



THE BIBLE 



203 



from Kidd's " Social Evolution," and then let 
these be all bound together in one book. After a 
thousand years have passed away, let a Japanese 
scholar translate this ancient volume into the 
language of his countrymen ; and the Japanese 
of that day, if they wish to find fault with the 
book, will easily be able to do so — readily making 
that which should have been for their enlighten- 
ment an occasion of falling, even a subject of jest 
and gibe. But whether they would show their 
wisdom or unutterable folly by so doing is quite 
another matter. 

3. There is another yet greater difficulty. We 
have not the original manuscripts, nor is there a 
single one of them left in existence. Although the 
first writings date back three thousand five hun- 
dred years, no known Hebrew manuscript of the 
Old Testament is even one thousand years old. It 
is not much better with the New. Even of that 
we have nothing that S. John or S. Paul or S. 
Peter ever saw. The oldest copy we have was 
made at least four centuries after their death. It 
is true that we have a large number of early manu- 
script copies, yet, as they all differ somewhat from 
each other, although in the main agreeing, their 
very numbers add to our difficulties. If the 



204 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



trumpet gives an uncertain sound, how can we 
know what is piped or harped ? Who is to tell us, 
among thousands of different readings, which 
particular one is correct? 

There are other so-called difficulties, which 
come through changes in the meaning of words 
in our own language. We are told that the Bi- 
ble is inconsistent; that in one place God is said 
to have tempted Abraham, and in another that 
He tempts no man. But there is no substantial 
contradiction in that. The word " tempt " is often 
used in the sense of testing : 

" Whom shall we find 

Sufficient ? Who shall tempi with wandering feet 

The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss ? " 

These are some of the difficulties. How do we 
meet them ? 

First, we would ask, What, in this connection, 
is meant by the word " difficulty ? " To what has 
it reference, and what is its precise force ? If it 
is meant that we shall find it difficult, in view of 
such facts as we have mentioned, to accept the 
Bible, just as we now have it printed, as in every 
particular the very Word of God, then we frankly 
admit that these are difficulties, and that they 
are insuperable ; we can no more overcome them 



THE BIBLE 



205 



than we can "bind the sweet influences of Plei- 
ades, or loose the bands of Orion." 1 But we are 
not committed to any such hopeless enterprise. 
Our English Bible is but a translation — one out 
of many such— made by fallible men from docu- 
ments which have been copied and recopied 
by many hands during many ages. But these 
men — copyists, printers, translators — received 
no gift of infallibility, and it were foolish to claim 
perfection for their work. 

But those difficulties are no obstacles at all in 
the way of our accepting that same Bible as sub- 
stantially what prophets and Apostles delivered 
from God so many generations ago. We have 
the highest authority — that of our Lord Himself 
— for saying that even the Old Testament is a 
faithful representation of that Word of God, and 
is' binding upon us. 

But, admitting all this, we may be told that this 
is but the fringe of the difficulties; that the diffi- 
culties are really such as these : First, that the 
contents of the Bible do not appear to point to a di- 
vine origin ; for, to say nothing of such statements 
as are palpably inconsistent with science — as, e.g., 
the account of the Creation — there are others as 

1 Job xxxviii. 31. 



206 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



palpably inconsistent with common sense, such as 
the account of Balaam's ass and of the sun stand- 
ing still at Joshua's command. Secondly, that 
the story of the Bible, taken as a whole, from a 
moral and metaphysical standpoint, is entirely 
inconsistent with the ideas of mercy and justice, 
of benevolence and Almighty power, and that in 
consequence men distinguished by scientific at- 
tainments and by brilliant ability, after careful in- 
quiry into the evidences of its truth, are convinced 
that it is not divine. Here is an impeachment 
that in truth burns all the bridges behind. 

What answer do we make to these objections? 

i. Well, first of all, we object to its being taken 
for granted that all men of intelligence are against 
the Bible. If it were a question of authority, 
Christian men would have the advantage. The 
greatest scientific philosopher ever vouchsafed to 
the world was a fervent believer in God's Word. 
Sir Isaac Newton, whose marble statue in West- 
minster Abbey represents him as weighing the 
sun with the steelyard of his philosophy, pro- 
claimed his belief that nature and scripture " are 
alike two books written by one and the same 
hand — the hand of the Living God." And New- 
ton is but chief among ten thousand, a goodly 



THE BIBLE 



207 



array. Herschel, first of astronomers ; John Mil- 
ton, among the poets ; Agassiz, among the scien- 
tists ; Hugh Miller, among the geologists and 
most graceful among the writers ; Washington 
and Wellington among the soldiers ; Daniel Web- 
ster and William E. Gladstone among the states- 
men, these and countless others have all been be- 
lievers in God's Word. 

2. Next r we say that the Bible has suffered from 
its friends. Most foolishly has it been forced by 
these to bear literal interpretations where none 
were meant. Because the Psalmist poetically as- 
serted that God had made the round world so 
sure that it could not be moved, Galileo was com- 
pelled to deny that it did move ! Even Calvin 
thought that verse proved that the earth was at 
rest in the heavens ; and Columbus was charged 
with impiety for believing in the existence of land 
beyond the sea, since the prophets and evange- 
lists were all clearly against him ! Yet why take 
such a verse literally, and not also this? — " The 
stars in their courses fought against Sisera : " Or 
this : " The hills melted like wax in the presence 
of the Lord." Consistency, thou art a jewel ; 
sadly is thy presence needed here even in the 
camp of the faithful. 



208 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



3. Moreover, the Bible was never intended to 
teach science or astronomy, or aught, indeed, but 
spiritual truths. What matters it therefore even 
if its language is not scientifically correct ? We 
have only to remember that it is not a text-book 
of science, and every objection to it based upon 
such assumption falls harmlessly to the ground as 
an arrow. against an iron-clad. Do we not, even 
now, speak to unlearned people in such language 
as they may best understand, without regard to 
mere technicalities ? 

4. But what of the incredible element in the 
Bible ? There is no incredible element. Granted 
a God of infinite power, there is nothing in the 
Bible we could not believe if it were plainly stated 
on sufficient testimony. 

The speaking of the prophet's ass is perhaps 
not really so very remarkable an instance of God's 
power as some others. We ourselves have often 
heard persons of very limited intelligence who 
have had in a large measure the gift of speech. 
Human speech is, in fact, not necessarily linked 
with intelligence of an high order. Even parrots 
can talk. Still, we are not at all sure that we are 
expected to believe that the ass spoke. Balaam, 
it has been suggested, as a superstitious augur, 



THE BIBLE 2O9 

would naturally give some interpretation to the 
cries of the animal, just as the later augurs of 
Rome did to the cackling of the sacred geese ; for, 
be it remembered, only from this soothsayer him- 
self could this account have come. 

Nor do we admit that the Bible states that at 
the command of Joshua the sun stood still ; for it 
simply states that the story to that effect " is writ- 
ten in the Book of Jasher." The " Book of Jasher," 
however, forms no part of the Scriptures. Never- 
theless, if the evidence were conclusive in favor 
of a pause in the onward sweep of the universe, 
we should believe it. He who made the sun can 
do what He will, bidding it stand or move as He 
directs. 

But cut bono ? After all it is but an incident in 
a plan of campaign. Every age has its battle field 
over religion. The doors of our Temple of Janus 
are rarely long shut. Continually the warning 
voice is heard — 

" Soldiers of Christ, arise, 
And put your armor on ! " 

At such time the enemy crieth so, and the ungod- 
ly cometh on so fast, and their voices against all 
revealed religion are heard shouting from afar ; 
14 



210 



IX THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



"Down with it! Down with it— even to the 

ground ! " 

To-day the casus belli may be this, to-morrow 
that. But there is no discharge in this war ; the 
enemy is always in the held. Just now a science, 
falsely so called, a blind agnosticism and hopeless 
materialism, with their forces joined, have set 
themselves together in battle-array against the 
Word of God. A strange hate animates some, an 
unseen power goads them. They tell us they are 
confident of victory. But we are not anxious. 
All the powers of darkness can do nothing against 
the truth. Truth, like the strong mountains, may 
not be removed, but standeth fast forever. En- 
throned where no mortal can touch her. we need 
tremble no more for her than for God. " The 
grass withereth. the flower fadeth, but the Word 
of God shall stand forever." 1 

The confidence of this new enemy astonishes 
us, as we can see nothing to justify it. Christians 
can always appeal to the fulfilled past as guaran- 
teeing the promised future. They can show that 
types have been fulfilled, prophecies have come 
to pass. They rest on experience. They can say : 
" We know," and out of that ground of certainty 

1 Isaiah xl. 8. 



THE BIBLE 



211 



they cannot be cast. They are as men who, 
knowing that the tide has rolled in for thousands 
of years, doubt not at all, and cannot doubt, but 
that it will roll in again on the morrow; or as 
men who, knowing that thousands of harvests 
have been reaped, are sure that " while the earth 
remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and 
heat, and summer and winter, and day and night 
shall not cease." 1 

But to what do these scoffers point ? Not to 
the past, surely. Glance for a moment backward 
at the past. Voltaire has been for long the fore- 
most prophet of the men who are without God in 
the world— the patriarch, as he mockingly styled 
himself, of the holy philosophical Church. Un- 
mindful of the risks that prophets run who do not 
set the fulfilment of their prophecies far enough 
in advance, he rashly predicted that in the nine- 
teenth century the Bible would not be read, and 
added besides, that in one hundred years Chris- 
tianity itself would have passed into history ! 
We are now in the last decade of the nineteenth 
century— yet, so far is that prophecy from hav- 
ing been fulfilled, that, as by a strange Nemesis, 
Voltaire's own printing-press has been used for 

1 Gen. viii. 22. 



212 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



printing Bibles, and his house is now a depot of 
the Geneva Bible Society! 

The Bible not read in the nineteenth century ! 
It is read even more than ever before. There are 
now more than eighty Bible societies in existence. 
One of these — the British and Foreign — last year 
printed no less than 3,000,000 copies. For every 
minute of the day and of the night ail through 
the year, without a single pause, five copies of 
the Bible are sent forth by this one society alone. 
As the mighty Niagara, ever flowing on, is every 
day flinging millions of gallons into the St. Law- 
rence, so the streams of Divine Truth, even more 
mighty in volume and more resistless in power, 
are flowing over this sin-stained world. Every 
week chronicles some new triumph of the Word 
— among the latest of these being the recent 
grateful reception by the Dowager Empress of 
China of a copy of that Word translated into her 
own tongue, and its translation into the language 
of the Basukuma people, in Central Africa — the 
320th language into which the Bible has been 
translated ! 

The Bible is daily being read more and more. 
Christianity has not passed into history, but Vol- 
taire has. Not long after his death, the services 



THE BIBLE 2 I 3 

of the nurse of his dying hours were sought for in 
a similar case. " Is he a Christian ? " was the ready 
question. " Yes, a faithful and true one. But 
why : " " Because I saw Voltaire die, and nothing 
on earth will induce me to witness another such 
death." 

Far. however, from there being any visible 
prospects of its speedy disappearance, the Bible 
is to-day not only being more widely read and 
more widely circulated, but is daily coming to fill 
a larger space in business life and a surer place in 
the affections of mankind. And this in no small 
measure because we are beginning to know it bet- 
ter. We stood in need of this knowledge. It was 
a rude shock to many when the Revised Version 
first came out. They had thought of the writers 
o: the Bible as simple amanuenses writing down 
from angelic dictation what God had said, just as 
the old artists loved to represent them, and every 
word was God's Word. But when that version 
revealed errors here and mistranslations there, the 
very foundations seemed to them thrown down. 
As soon, however, as they had recovered from 
their consternation, they saw clearly that it was 
not the Bible, but their own ideas of it. which 
needed revision. And now we hesitate not, in the 



214 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



light of this new knowledge, to say that the more 
fully the Bible is known, the more distinctly is it 
seen to be the Word of God to man— a light to 
lighten man's feet and a lantern unto his path: 

" Lord, Thy Word abideth, 
And our footsteps guideth ; 
Who its truth believeth, 
Light and joy receiveth." 

We once steamed up a deep inlet of the Atlan- 
tic Ocean into the Island of Newfoundland. The 
scenery was as grand and striking as that of a 
Norway fjord, and very similar. The inlet con- 
sisted of what appeared to be a succession of 
lakes. As the steamer passed into one after an- 
other, no outlet was visible beyond. Once within, 
there appeared to be a perfectly landlocked sheet 
of water. A few minutes' steaming, however, re- 
vealed an opening through which we presently 
glided, only to emerge upon the bosom of another 
lake, and to find ourselves in the midst of a simi- 
lar scene. At last we reached the head, when all 
our difficulties were over. Simply going forward 
had solved them. They did not, in fact, exist. 
So w T ith the Bible : — Go right on ; take it for what 
it claims to be, not for what you have perhaps 



THE BIBLE 



215 



made it in your own fertile imagination — and all 
will be well. Let men draw near in reverence, 
and in a spirit willing to learn, and the Book will 
do its own work. " The secret of the Lord is with 
them that fear Him, and He will show them His 
covenant.'' 1 

1 Ps. xxv. 14. 



XII. 

THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



XII. 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 

" A glory gilds the sacred page 
Majestic as the sun : 
It gives a light to every age, 
It gives, but borrows none." 

— COWPER. 

There are three very distinct theories with 
respect to the place of the Holy Scriptures in the 
Church. 

i. First, the Denominational Theory.— 
This is the theory held by such bodies of Chris- 
tians as the Methodists, the Congregationalists, 
and the Baptists. In perfect accord, as one man, 
all these bodies will affirm, with Chillingworth : 
" The Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of 
Protestants." To all such it is 

" The only star 
By which the bark of man can navigate 
The sea of life, and gain the court of bliss 
Securely." 



220 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

They assume that in possession of a Bible, the 
Protestant Christian is fully competent to know 
God's will ; henceforth he is independent of all 
human intervention ; he needs neither priest nor 
Church to stand between him and God. Why 
should he ? What can they tell him that he does 
not know ? What offer him that he does not al- 
ready possess? He fully believes, with Macaulay, 
that a Christian with the Bible in his hand in the 
nineteenth century, is in just as favorable a posi- 
tion for serving- God as men have been at any 
time since Christ left this earth. 

The ideas of such Christians as to what is "The 
Church" are not, of course, ours; and, we being 
the judges, they are not well founded. But what- 
ever they may be, they are not intentionally in 
conflict with the Bible. To those who hold them, 
as the heaven is higher than the earth, so is the 
Bible higher than the Church. The Church is of 
man ; the Bible is of God. The Church is imper- 
fect ; the Bible perfect. We summon here but one 
witness, a confessedly competent witness, and then 
we proceed. " This is the word of God," 1 said 
the late C. H. Spurgeon; "come, search, ye crit- 
ics, and find a flaw ; examine it, from its Genesis to 

1 Sermons, vol. i. , p. 31. 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



221 



its Revelation, and find an error. This is a vein 
of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz, or any earthly 
substance. This is a star without a speck ; a sun 
without a blot; a light without darkness ; a moon 
without its paleness; a glory without dimness. 
O Bible ! it cannot be said of any other book 
that it is perfect and pure ; but of thee we can 
declare all wisdom is gathered up in thee, without 
a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends 
the strife, where wit and wisdom fail. This is the 
book untainted by any error; but is pure, unal- 
loyed, perfect truth." No one can say that this 
trumpet gives an uncertain sound. 

2. The Roman Catholic Theory.— This is 
the exact opposite of the Protestant, for the ex- 
istence of which we believe it to be largely re- 
sponsible. Its teaching is that not the Bible, 
but the Church, is supreme ; that the Bible holds 
only a secondary place in the economy of grace, 
as being but a partial and incomplete revelation 
of God's will to man. Yet the Roman Bible is 
larger than that in Protestant hands ! It contains 
the Apocrypha, which the other does not. Yet, 
notwithstanding this apparent advantage, the Ro- 
man Church, still unsatisfied with Scripture, anath- 
ematizes all who hold Scripture to be a sufficient 



222 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



revelation of God's will to man. It asserts that 
tradition is also necessary; and more than all, 
that whosoever will be saved must hear and obey 
the voice of the Living Church. 

Ask what necessary things tradition tells us, 
and a Roman Cardinal, the famous Bellarmine, is 
ready with a list. But such a list, forsooth ! Ex 
uno disce omnia. We are gravely informed that 
tradition was needed to tell us how women were 
saved under the law ! What solemn trifling i s 
this ! An Atlantic liner, reversing its engines in 
mid-ocean to look for a drowning kitten, is, in 
comparison, an inspiring sight. A great Church 
brings out bell, book, and candle to condemn 
those who cannot be persuaded that a knowledge 
of such trifles is really necessary to salvation. 
Why, we could not have a more cogent argument 
than this to persuade men that Scripture is alone 
the one fount of all our spiritual knowledge. 

3. The Axglo-Catholic Theory. This oc- 
cupies the middle ground between the Denomi- 
national and the Roman, and nowhere is the via 
media between the two extremes of Denomina- 
tionalism and Papalism more clearly seen than 
here. 

This Church loves the Bible as much as the ex- 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



223 



tremest Protestant can ever love it. She delights 
to do it honor. She assigns it an exalted place 
in her Services, bringing it prominently forward, 
reading it publicly from end to end, providing 
that a considerable portion of it shall be read at 
every Service which she offers to God, making 
it the final Court of Appeal in all matters of faith, 
telling her children that they must look there for 
the authority for everything that she teaches, " so 
that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be 
proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, 
that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, 
or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." 1 
She sends all inquirers " To the law and to the 
testimony : if they speak not according to this 
word, it is because there is no light in them." 2 No 
Protestant sect does more than this ; nor, indeed, 
as .much. Not one assigns such an honored place 
to the Word of God in any of its public Services 
as this Church assigns in every Service she ren- 
ders. 

On the other hand, however, the Church will 
not thrust the Bible into a place which it was 
never intended to fill. She cannot speak of it as 

1 Articles of Religion, Art. vi. — Prayer-Book, p. 557. 

2 Isaiah viii. 20. 



224 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



the only religion of men. She is with the Roman 
Church upon that point. She cannot accept the 
denominational theory if she would. Holy Script- 
ure is her child, which through a long life she has 
guarded with all a mother's care, and with all a 
mother's love. She is still its witness and keeper ; 
but her life is not dependent upon it, any more 
than a mother's life is dependent upon her off- 
spring. She is built, not upon the Book, but 
upon the Rock, our Blessed Lord Himself ; and if 
a worse than Diocletian persecution should com 
sume the Scriptures to-morrow, she would still 
hold intact the authority to teach the truth once 
for all committed to the saints, and in that teach- 
ing men would find that the Word of God lived 
on. Such, then, is the place of the Bible in our 
Anglo-Catholic Church. 

Now, these three different theories as to the 
place of the Bible have had their marked effect 
upon the Christian bodies which respectively 
hold them, as well as on their treatment of the 
Bible itself. Mark the result of the Denomina- 
tional theory among its followers. Refusing the 
help of the Church and relying only on them- 
selves, many well-meaning Protestants have found 
apparently not merely things hard, but things im- 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



225 



possible to understand in Holy Scripture, and 
they have in consequence let them severely alone. 
Others they have delighted in, but at the cost of 
the entire exclusion of these more difficult say- 
ings. They have forgotten that "all Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness ; that the man of God may 
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 1 

We mentioned a while ago the late Mr. Spur- 
geon. No preacher in our day has continuously 
held through as many years so vast a congrega- 
tion together. But his great power was not so 
much seen in his preaching as in his exposition of 
Scripture. Yet it has been said that never once, 
among all the expositions he gave, among all the 
sermons he preached, did he ever expound the 
words : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are re- 
mitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye re- 
tain they are retained." 2 Why? It was not be- 
cause that is an obscure verse, easily overlooked ; 
still less because all are agreed about its meaning. 
We are led to believe that the reason was, that 

1 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 

2 S. John xx. 23. 

15 



226 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



on no conceivable, honest interpretation — and 
Spurgeon was honest— had that text any place in 
the Baptist exposition. That vast congregation 
did not receive its due proportion of teaching, 
because it would not. It was a textuist congre- 
gation, whose very existence depended upon the 
magnifying of certain prominent verses and the 
forgetfulness of others. Thus large sections of 
the Bible are left as unexplored regions to many 
of our separated brethren. 

The effect of Roman teaching is precisely the 
same. Extremes here meet, as so often elsewhere. 
That, too, has belittled Scripture, though by the 
opposite process. The incorporation of what 
were at best but ecclesiastical writings, as part of 
the Divine Word (we speak of the Apocrypha), 
was the first step ; and the acknowledgment of 
tradition as of equal authority was the next, 
which well prepared men for the final assertion 
of the supreme authority of every utterance of 
the Church, even when such utterance plainly 
contradicted the written word of God. For a 
second time in history men " had made the com- 
mandment of God of none effect by their tradi- 
tions." 1 What this means let the following pa- 

1 Matt. xv. 6. 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 227 



thetic story tell ; its singularly touching interest 
amply justifying the recital : 

The Indians of Oregon, having heard that the 
white man had a Book, and that it was the Book 
of God, the Great Spirit, determined to send a 
deputation — two of the chief Sachems and two 
young braves — to St. Louis to ask for a copy. 
They travelled three thousand miles on their re- 
markable mission only to meet with disappoint- 
ment, the two old men dying in that city ; the two 
younger nowhere meeting among its Roman 
Catholic population anyone who would further 
the great object of their journey, although treated 
everywhere with great kindness and courtesy. 
The farewell speech of one of the survivors, made 
in the Council-room of the American Fur Com- 
pany, is one of the most touching pieces of Indian 
eloquence on record. " I came to you," he said, 
" over a trail of many moons from the setting sun. 
You were the friends of my fathers, who have all 
gone the long way. I came with one eye partly 
opened, for more light for my people, who sit in 
darkness. I go back with both eyes closed. How 
can I go back blind to my blind people ? I made 
my way to you with strong arms, through many 
enemies and strange lands, that I might carry 



228 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



much to them. I go back with both arms broken 
and empty. The two fathers who came with us — 
the braves of many winters and wars — we leave 
asleep here by your great water and wigwam. 
They were tired in many moons and their moc- 
casins wore out. My people sent me to get the 
white man's Book of Heaven. You took me 
where you allow your women to dance, as we do 
not ours, and the Book was not there. You took 
me where they worship the Great Spirit with 
candles, and the Book was not there. You 
showed me the images of good spirits and pict- 
ures of the good land beyond, but the Book was 
not among them to tell us the way. I am going 
back the long sad trail to my people of the dark 
land. You make me feel heavy with burdens of 
gifts, and my moccasins will grow old in carrying 
them, but the Book is not among them. When 
I tell my poor blind people, after one more snow, 
in the big council, that I did not bring the Book, 
no word will be spoken by our old men nor 
by our young braves. One by one they will 
rise up and go out in silence. My people will 
die in darkness and they will go on the long 
path to the other hunting ground. No white 
man will go with them, and no white man's 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



229 



Book to make the way plain. I have no more 
words." 

Mark, however, the effect of the theory of the 
Anglican-Catholic Church. She stands to-day as 
she has always stood, for an open Bible. 

In the old Parish Church at Chelsea, in London, 
the church in which Sir Thomas More was buried; 
in whose rectory Charles Kingsley grew to man- 
hood, destined to be a Canon of Westminster, a 
poet, a novelist, and many things beside ; in the 
graveyard of which rests Woodfall, the publisher 
of the " Letters of Junius;" the church beside 
which Carlyle, the Sage of Chelsea, lived his life, 
there is chained a copy of the scarce " Vinegar 
Bible," so named because of the misprint " Parable 
of the Vinegar," instead of " Parable of the Vine- 
yard." That old Bible is itself a parable, telling 
its story of how the Church has always loved to 
set up its open Bible, 

" Plain for all folk to see." 

But mindful of what one has read about the Bible 
being hidden away, of what we have been told in 
an eminently dramatic way about Luther in Ger- 
many unexpectedly finding a copy of the word of 
God, we ask, did our Church in pre-Reformation 



230 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



days love an open Bible, as she undoubtedly does 
now, or did she hide it away, as men once hid the 
Apocrypha? Read some books, and they tell us 
she did ; read others, and they say she did not. 
Can both be right? We believe that, rightly un- 
derstood, they can. 

The national Church of England was ever a 
Bible-loving Church ; but we must not forget that 
when her Roman sister held her in bondage they 
became so closely identified with each other as 
often to be regarded as one and the same. 

He who will bear these facts in mind will have no 
difficulty in reconciling these apparently contra- 
dictory accounts. He will see then how there 
ever came to be such discordant notes in a Church 
which claimed the famous Columba, whose mis- 
sionary life was in a mysterious way solely due to 
his earnest desire to possess a copy of the word of 
God; a Church whose devoted son, the venerable 
Bede, heard the Master's word " It is finished,'' 
while he was translating S. John's Gospel, and 
laid down his pen and his life together; whose 
King Alfred, most loyal of sons, held it as his 
dearest wish that " all the free-born youths of 
England should employ themselves on nothing 
until they could first read well the English Script- 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



231 



tures ; " whose famous Rector of Lutterworth, 
John Wyclif, the morning-star of the Reformation, 
translated the whole of the New Testament and 
half the Old; whose William Tyndale, Greek 
scholar and man mighty in the Scriptures, set it 
as the purpose of his life to " one day make the 
boy who drives the plough in England know more 
of Scripture than the Pope does ; " a Church which 
after Tyndale's death set up Tyndale s Bible in 
every parish in the land ; which had so taught 
the youthful King Edward VI. to value the Word 
of God, that he said, when at his coronation the 
swords were delivered to him as King of England, 
France, and Ireland : " There is yet another sword 
to be delivered to me, I mean the Sacred Bible, 
which is the sword of the Spirit, and without 
which we are nothing, neither can we do any- 
thing a Church which greeted with a Bible his 
sister Elizabeth in open procession, and finally 
gave us that authorized version, of which this is 
the testimony of an erring son, " It lives on the ear 
like music that can never be forgotten ; like the 
sound of church bells which the convert scarcely 
knows how he can forego ; it is part of the national 
mind, and the anchor of the national seriousness ; 
it is the representative of a man's best moments ; 



232 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



all that there has been about him of soft and gentle 
and pure and penitent and good speaks to him for- 
ever out of his English Bible." 

It was not of the will of the Anglican Church to 
hide the word of God, but of her foreign sister. 
The Anglican loved, the Roman feared that Word. 
But so closely were they for a while bound to- 
gether that they seemed but one — but in that one 
there appeared to be a double personality — a Dr. 
Jekyll and a Mr. Hyde. But, unlike Stevenson's 
well-known story, the Jekyll triumphed. An open 
Bible has ever been the possession of the Anglican 
Church. But as in the story, so in the history ; 
there were in England times when the Hyde got 
the upper hand, when mutilations and burnings 
were the order of the day ; and again times when 
the true man appeared and there was peace. Let 
that fanciful story illustrate our meaning. 

It was Jekyll fighting for God's word ; it was 
Hyde digging up Wyclif's bones and burning 
them, for that he had "made the Scriptures com- 
mon and more open to laymen and to women than 
it was wont to be to clerks well learned and of 
good understanding, so that the pearl of the Gos- 
pel was trodden under the foot of swine." It was 
Hyde that sentenced those found reading Wyclif's 



THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 



233 



translation to be burned with copies of it round 
their necks, and that smiled to see Christ's no- 
blest in their agony : Hyde, that strangled Tyn- 
dale at the stake. It was Jekyll that was translat- 
ing, copying, printing, and spreading that Word 
broadcast. 

But as the bright, blue, clear Rhone conquers 
the thick yellow Arve, so Jekyll conquered Hyde 
and an open Bible was the result. And to-day our 
Church is emphatically the Church of the Bible. 
She reads it through and through, and hesitates 
not to rest the proof of her own claims to be in- 
deed commissioned by Almighty God, on the evi- 
dences she can collect from its pages. There is 
no Church which has done more for scholarship 
than she has, but she turns from the works of the 
greatest of her sons to the Word which she re- 
ceived, not from man, but from God. She wel- 
comes tradition and all the teachings of the 
Fathers, but only as illustrating that Word and 
making its meaning clearer. She welcomes the 
Apocrypha and writes it on " the blank page," 
between the Old and New Testaments, reading 
it sometimes in the Church as she does Canonical 
Scripture, yet not to establish any doctrine, but 
only for instruction in life and manners. She is 



234 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



sound in her loyalty to the One Book of God. 
She will allow nothing to enter into rivalry or 
competition with it : 

" The Church from her dear Master, 
Received the gift Divine, 
And still that light she lifteth 
O'er all the earth to shine." 



XIII. 

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



XIII. 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 

" What ! Prayer by the book ? and common ? 
Yes. Why not ? 
The spirit of grace 
And supplication, 
Is not left free alone 
For time and place ; 
But manner too. To read or speak by rote 
Is all alike to him that prays 
With 's heart, that with his mouth he says." 

—Herbert. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds tells us of the extreme 
disappointment with which he first beheld Ra- 
phael's famous picture of the Transfiguration. It 
was only as he came to look at it again and again 
that the picture grew upon him, until he saw 
clearly the handiwork of genius. Not at first 
did he realize its worth. 

Just so does the Prayer-Book grow upon us. 
Not until we have come close to it do we per- 



238 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

ceive the sweetness of its harmonies, or the great- 
ness of its soul-uplifting powers. Till then it is 
as a sealed book. We cannot do with it as we 
do with mountain scenery— admire it at a great 
distance ; we must draw near to it ; we must pray 
its prayers and drink of its spirit ; then its beau- 
ties and its comforts, all hidden before, will start 
out into glittering brilliance. As one look- 
ing up into the heavens on a clear night, per- 
ceives at first few only of the stars, but, continu- 
ing to gaze, sees at last that the heavens are all 
ablaze with light, so one looking at this book 
graduallv sees one bright jewel after another 
flashing on his sight, until the whole becomes as a 
coal of living fire from the Altar of God ! 

Here, indeed, is the secret of the eventual 
breakdown of all opposition to the Prayer-Book. 
Years ago opposition was strong and widespread. 
But now it is dying out, and all because the book 
is becoming better known. Even many who once 
made war on it have come over to us. Two facts 
reveal this : 

(1) Ministers of non-liturgical congregations 
are on all sides, in their public prayers and ser- 
vices, making large drafts on this book, both for 
inspiration and for language ; nor are they any 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 239 



longer afraid to yield it unstinted praise. And 
their people love to have it so. Not many years 
ago, to the great delight of the congregation in a 
certain Scottish Presbyterian kirk, Sunday by 
Sunday, was said, all from memory, the beauti- 
ful Litany of the Episcopal Church. 

(2) Non-liturgical communities are themselves 
now openly taking to the use of some sort of 
prayer-books. This new departure is to some 
among them a grief of mind. But they are pow- 
erless ; and no Jenny Geddes will arise in her 
might to tread the war-path against the bringers- 
in of these hateful book-prayers ! True, these 
prayers are not always word for word with ours. 
But, all the same, the Church can say with Tenny- 
son — only with her it is a real cause of rejoicing 
that she can so truly say — 

" Once in a golden hour 
I cast to earth a seed, 
Up there came a flower — - 
The people said a weed. 

" To and fro they went 
Thro' my garden-bower, 
And, muttering discontent, 
Cursed me and my flower. 



240 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



" Then it grew so tall 

It wore a crown of light ; 
But thieves from o'er the wall 
Stole the seed by night : 

" Sowed it far and wide, 

By every town and tower, 
Till all the people cried, 
' Splendid is the flower.' 

" Read my little fable ; 
He that runs may read. 
Most can raise the flowers now, 
For all have got the seed." 

The true Christian Church has never been with- 
out a Prayer-Book, or, as it was anciently called, a 
Liturgy. She had one (pardon the Hibernianism) 
before it was written. But in very truth, unwrit- 
ten for 300 years, the Church yet possessed a 
Liturgy. She had, that is to say, fixed forms of 
prayer, which were as faithfully preserved by 
memory and practice as if they had been written 
down with ink and with pen. In this respect we 
fear some so-called extemporaneous prayers are 
but book-prayers, after all. We remember a typi- 
cal instance. A venerable Scotch clergyman of 
the older school on meeting one of his parishion- 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 241 



ers, kindly inquired after her health. "I'm unco 
wake and my mind's clean gane," was the reply. 
" I am sorry to hear that, woman," said the minis- 
ter ; " the want of memory is a great affliction ; ye 
ken I can well sympathize with you in it, for I've 
suffered greatly in that way mysei' for a long time." 
" Eh, sir, hoo can ye say that, when I've heard ye 
gi'e the same prayer noo for ower sax-an'-twenty 
year, an' ye ha'ena forgotten a word o't — no' ane." 

It was not that the early Christians had any 
scruples against written prayers. They well knew 
that the Jewish Church had for ages used such 
prayers ; that Christ himself had joined in them 
and had used them also ; and that when His Apos- 
tles asked for a form, he immediately gave them 
one. But the same feeling which caused them to 
refrain from committing their creed to writing, 
was ever present. They feared lest those prayers 
might fall into the hands of the heathen ; and al- 
ways before their eyes were Christ's warning 
words : " Give not that which is holy unto the 
dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, 
lest they trample them under their feet, and turn 
again and rend you." 1 So, not until persecution 
had ceased and this danger had passed away, could 

i St. Matt. vii. 6. 

16 



242 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



written forms of prayer appear ; then they came as 
naturally as night follows day. This was, how- 
ever, not until the beginning of the fourth century. 
Then we find that four distinct liturgies were in 
existence — all, however, so closely resembling one 
another as manifestly to be the offspring of one 
common stock. These were, (i) that of the East- 
ern Church, now known as the Oriental Liturgy, 
which prevailed from the Hellespont, and from 
thence to the southern extremity of Greece, across 
to the Euphrates ; (2) that of Alexandria, used in 
Egypt, Abyssinia, and the countries westward 
along the Mediterranean Sea ; (3) that of Rome, 
which prevailed in Italy and along the North 
African coast ; (4) and finally the Gallican, which, 
it is thought, prevailed throughout Gaul, Spain, 
and Britain. This much for prayer-books in gen- 
eral. 

Here however we may leave the general his- 
tory of Prayer-Books to follow the fortunes of 
our own in Britain and in America. Prayer-Book 
history, as it concerns ourselves, may be grouped 
into three separate epochs : 

1. Extending from the first preaching of the 
Gospel in Britain to the Reformation. 

2. From the Reformation to the beginning 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



243 



of our own independent and national American 
life. 

3. From then to the present time. 

Of the four ancient liturgies the Gallican was 
probably — if we may borrow a term familiar to us 
in our own phraseology — the standard Prayer- 
Book of Britain. But it was not destined to be 
without a rival. When the Italian missionary, 
Augustine, arrived in A.D. 597, he brought with 
him the book then used at Rome and on the Afri- 
can coast 

" Fronting Italy and the mouth of the Tiber." 

This book Augustine urged the British Bishops 
to accept in place of their own. It was, he said, 
S. Peter's. But they had no mind to make such 
exchange. Their own Book had the authority 
of S. John and S. Paul, and in the judgment 
of British Christians those Apostles were not a 
whit behind S. Peter himself. And to the Brit- 
ish much more than S. Peter could ever be, for 
the seal of their Apostleship were they in the 
Lord. So clinging with Naboth like fervor to the 
inheritance of their fathers, they refused the prof- 
fered gift. Mortified beyond measure, Augustine 
returned to his work in Kent among the heathen 



244 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Saxons. Neither he nor his and they ever met 
again ; yet as time wore on, and the people of 
Kent, who, taught by Augustine, had become 
Christians and were using his Liturgy, met with 
the people of the old book of the land, prejudice 
wore away, and soon the two forms of Liturgical 
Service which had so long existed side by side 
were merged together, and became the standard 
Prayer-Book of a united National Church. 

We must, however, guard against misappre- 
hension. Our illustration is not altogether per- 
fect. This standard book of mediaeval Chris- 
tianity was far from being the equivalent of the 
modern Prayer-Book. It was merely the nucleus 
of it, containing but little besides the Service of 
the Communion. Around it other books of lesser 
importance revolved like satellites around the 
sun. But they were not directly of it. These 
were the Breviary, containing a series of daily 
services ; the Manual, containing the Baptismal 
and other occasional Offices which might be per- 
formed by a priest ; and the Pontifical, with ser- 
vices which the bishop might alone administer. 
Yet they were all in structure and general tone 
the same, but the Missal — the Communion Ser- 
vice — was always the model of them all. 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



245 



These books, however, had no one custodian. 
Every bishop, according to primitive custom, 
regulated the services of the Church in his own 
diocese without let or hindrance ; he added to 
the standard or took away, as he thought well. 
A uniformly standard Prayer-Book under such 
circumstances was manifestly impossible. Yet 
the variations were not so great as one might sup- 
pose. All acknowledged that a Liturgy derived 
from an Apostle should not be greatly altered. 
Still these variations were such as finally to cre- 
ate well-established uses or customs. Thus there 
was the Use of Bangor, the Use of Hereford, of 
Lincoln, of York, and the most popular and most 
widely known of all the Use of Sarum or Salis- 
bury. 

Yet a likeness to the common original ran 
through all these Uses or Prayer-books. Those 
mediaeval bishops were true, consciously or un- 
consciously, to the law of unity of type. "By 
unity of type," 1 says Darwin, "is meant the fun- 
damental agreement in structure which we see in 
organic beings of the same class, and which is 
given to them independent of their habits of life." 



1 Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 166. 



246 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



They who from time to time made changes from 
the common standard were — 

" So careful of the type," 

that it has been said that, if S. John, during the 
celebration of the Holy Communion, could visit 
one of our own churches in this nineteenth cen- 
tury, he would feel perfectly at home, and could 
readily take his part in the service. Perhaps 
then, the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephe- 
sus would be seen to be nearer the truth than we 
had thought, and to be no legend at all, but sober 
reality, for after eighteen centuries a Bishop of 
Ephesus— the greatest the city of Diana ever had 
—hearing once again the old prayers, might even 
think himself back again where he had once ruled 
as bishop. 

Thus, while the theme was harmonious, these 
mediaeval Uses upon Uses began to produce 
great confusion : and so a cry for simpler ser- 
vices and simpler books was raised everywhere: 
This cry was indeed a principal cause of the 
Reformation. Intelligible simplicity was the 
great need of the hour, and the Church nobly un- 
dertook to meet the demand. Cranrner was the 
principal editor of the revised Book of Common 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 247 



Prayer. But the task was great. Before him lay 
a vast mass of Missals, Breviaries, Manuals, and 
Pontificals from almost every Diocese in Eng- 
land, and from Rome and the Continent — their 
number seemed legion. And they were all in 
Latin which had long been " a tongue not under- 
standed of the people." 1 

As we contemplate this chaotic mass, one ques- 
tion forces itself upon us. How would the good 
people of these days, whose gorge rises at the 
sight of some small deviation from established 
usage, have vexed their righteous souls had 
they lived then? Yet, almost from the traditional 
preaching of S. Paul until the eve of the Refor- 
mation, such chaos existed in Britain. Surely not 
carping criticism, but deep thankfulness, should 
be ours to-day that this chaos is ended. 

The demand then was for a standard book 
which, purged from mediaeval accretions and er- 
ror, should be in the vulgar tongue and be in- 
telligibly simple. It was not authors, but editors, 
translators and compilers, that were in request. 
Not a new prayer was called for; not a new ser- 
vice required. Had either been proposed, men 
would have said, "the old is better." All they 

1 Articles of Religion, Art. XXIV.— Prayer-Book, p. 562. 



248 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



asked was simplicity. Their old prayers, like old 
friends, suited them best. With this formal de- 
mand made and complied with, the first great 
epoch of our Prayer-Book draws to its close. 

The second epoch opens in 1544. Then, by the 
translation into the vernacular of the Litany, a 
great forward movement was made. It was an 
auspicious beginning. In the year 1547 the Epis- 
tles and Gospels were appointed to be said. The 
Holy Communion Service in English followed 
the next year. This work proceeded until all the 
Services; for the Communion, for Baptism, Burial, 
and other special Offices, were finally prepared, 
and the whole English book was ready for publi- 
cation in the second year of the reign of the young 
king, Edward VI. On January 12, 1549, the Act 
for " Uniformity of Service and Administration 
of the Sacraments throughout the Realm" had 
been passed by Parliament, having previously 
been adopted by Convocation. Thus all demands 
were met. An English Prayer -Book, simple, 
scriptural, and complete, was now the property 
of the English Church. By a happy omen, " on 
the Feast of the Pentecost next coming," which 
that year fell on June 9th, the book was first used. 
Most appropriately indeed was all this done on 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



249 



that festival which commemorates the outpour- 
ing; of God's Holy Spirit, when men first heard 
the good news of the Gospel in their own tongue 
in which they were born. 

Known as Edward's First Book because four 
years afterward another appeared, it has never 
been entirely superseded. The second, unconsti- 
tutionally put forth, was scarcely issued before 
the young King died. Then both first and sec- 
ond were promptly consigned by Queen Mary 
to the flames. Later on, in the reign of Eliza- 
beth, the second book, with some material altera- 
tions and additions was restored and became the 
Prayer-Book of the English Church. 

No true Churchman, we believe, has ever re- 
gretted the disappearance of that second book in 
its original form. It stood for bald Puritanism in 
faith and practice and was the result of panic leg- 
islation, It was not the work of English Church- 
men, but of German and Swiss Calvinists. But 
would we had never lost the First ! It is per- 
haps not too much to say that, having regard to 
all for which a prayer-book stands, no prayer- 
book equal to that has ever before or since seen 
the light of day. Even to this day English 
Churchmen are sent to that book as their 



250 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

final authority ; for the only ritual directions the 
English Church now has are contained in the 
famous " ornaments rubric : " And here it is to be 
noted that such ornaments of the Church, and of the 
Ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, 
shall be retained, and be in use, as were in this 
Church of England, by the authority of Parliament, 
in the Second Year of the Reign of King Edward 
the Sixth. 

That Prayer-Book is ours ; hence all we have 
said. While this land was a colony of Great 
Britain, the Church of the Mother Country 
crossed the Atlantic to minister to her scattered 
children in this New World. But when the Col- 
ony became the Republic, the Colonial Church 
at once became the Church of the Nation. No 
longer now the Church of England in America, 
she had become the Church of America. 

It was then, to use the words which you will 
find in the Preface to our Prayer-Book, that 
" the attention of this Church was in the first 
place drawn to those alterations in the Liturgy 
which became necessary in the prayers for our 
civil rulers in consequence of the Revolution." 
The book had, of course, necessarily to be 
amended. Of the result of this work Ave will let 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



251 



the revisers speak for themselves in the words of 
that Preface. " It seems unnecessary," said they, 
"to enumerate all the different alterations and 
amendments. They will appear, and it is hoped 
the reasons of them also, upon a comparison of this 
with the Book of Common Prayer of the Church 
of England. In which it will also appear that 
this Church is far from intending to depart from 
the Church of England in any essential point of 
doctrine, discipline, or worship, or further than 
local circumstances require." This Preface is our 
own "ornaments rubric " — the only one we have 
—but it will be seen that it is practically the same 
as the English Church possesses. We may be 
thankful to have it. Remove it, and " there is no 
law." It is, for example, the universal custom 
for our Clergy to be vested with surplice and 
stole. But why not a black coat and white tie, 
or something less conventional still ? What is 
there, unless good taste shall say nay, to prevent 
some other costume being adopted in the chancel 
and the pulpit? There is not a word about a 
surplice in the Book. Custom, you say? Unfor- 
tunately, custom is untrustworthy. A few years 
ago one saw only long black stoles, and surplices 
even longer. But the stoles of to-day are red and 



252 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



purple and white and green, and the surplices are 
not as heretofore. No ; custom will not suffice, 
for it is as fickle as fashion. 

The ornaments rubric is our only court of ap- 
peal. Upon that we take our stand. It carries 
us back to Edward's days, and authorizes for use 
now what was in use then, and forbids now what 
was forbidden then ; and it does more — it shows 
most clearly that there has in all these years been 
no break in continuity ; the Church that has 
crossed an ocean, is still one with the Church on 
the other side. 

Of late a deeper interest has been awakened in 
this old Prayer-Book of ours. Wide-spread Prayer- 
Book distribution has become a feature in the 
Church's life and work to-day. The adaptiveness 
of this book as a manual for' the missionary in his 
work, for the Christian in his life, for the people 
in their worship, for the ministry in its office, for 
the nation, and for the Catholic Church, is rapidly 
becoming manifest to all ; as more than all else 
the pure form of sound words, that good thing 
committed unto us by the Holy Ghost. 

The Scottish people, it is said, value beyond all 
others three books : The Bible, Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress, and Fox's Book of Martyrs. Let it be said 



THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 



253 



of the American people that they also have books 
they value beyond all others that have ever been 
written : The Bible and the Prayer-Book. The 
Bible first, the Prayer-Book next. 



XIV. 

THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 



XIV. 



THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 

" More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of." 

—Tennyson. 

An old Church has, as v\ r e have seen, an old 
Prayer-Book — and everyone of the Church's sons 
rejoices to think of it as old ; as the Prayer-Book of 
Andrewes and Butler, of Ken and Laud, of Wyclif 
and Anseim, of Langton and Theodore and Aidan, 
of Alfred and Bede and Augustine, those saintly 
heroes of the past whom we know by name, and 
whose memories Ave treasure; as also of that 
greater multitude whose names we know not, 
but who, well known to God, " have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." 1 

Almost identically as it is now, the Church has 
had this book for over three hundred years, and 

1 Rev ; vii. 14. 

17 



258 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



in one form or another she has possessed and used 
its material for some fifteen hundred years more. 
It is the heritage of the ages. After her pure sac- 
raments and her open Bible, her ancient faith and 
catholic order, she values her book of Common 
Prayer more than all else besides. Many and 
beautiful buildings belong to her. Noble churches 
and stately cathedrals, some so exquisitelj- beau- 
tiful that it seems almost as if the solid rock had 
blossomed into flower. But without a sigh she 
would part with them all if she had to choose 
between them and her Prayer-Book. To her that 
book is as daily bread. Not at long intervals 
but every day does she use it. Its history has 
been largely her history ; its fortunes her fort- 
unes. It has indeed so entered into her life that 
in these latter days she and the book have seemed 
to be indispensable to each other, and she has in 
consequence become known, from one end of a 
wide sphere of influence to the other, as the 
Church of the Prayer-Book. 

But why is this book so much to her? What 
is its place in her system ? The Church herself 
stands for the sum total of revealed truth, for all 
organized Christianity, for unity in faith and 
work, for spiritual guidance, for a voice from 



THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 259 



God, for the means of salvation. For what does 
the Prayer-Book stand ? We answer : 

1. For True Catholicism, — which is the mid- 
dle ground between Denominationalism and Pa- 
palism. The true Churchman alone is the true 
Catholic. Not indeed that he is not a Protestant 
also, — even as were our ancestors who delighted 
to style themselves " Protestant Catholicks." But 
he is a Catholic first of all, and more than all. The 
Church's Creed binds him to Catholicism. He 
there professes faith, not in a Holy Protestant, 
still less in a " Holy Roman," but in "the Holy 
Catholic Church. " 

Nor is this a question of words and names. The 
essence of Protestantism is the right of every 
man to resist unscriptural innovations. The per- 
version of this is the assumed right to believe 
what he will. When Cardinal Vaughan said that 
he was not prepared to see Protestants en masse 
accepting papal infallibility, inasmuch as every 
Protestant was his own Pope, he was in a meas- 
ure right. To the denominational Protestant 
there can be no other Pope because he claims 
that there is no authority outside of himself which 
can direct him in matters of religion. He knows 
not the Church as such an authority. It is, ac- 



26o 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



cording to him, a mere delusion to imagine that 
she is such. There is indeed, in his judgment, and 
he speaks as one having authority, no organized 
visible Church at all. Now, Protestantism of it- 
self is no more an adequate description of the 
Christian life than an account of our late Civil 
War would be a faithful representation of Ameri- 
can life, or of the forces which have made Amer- 
ica great. 

The essence of Papalism, on the other hand, 
is the absolute denial of every individual right 
whatsoever. Papalism perverts the supremacy 
of the Church into the supremacy of one man; 
for Cardinal Cajetan has told us that the Church 
is the bond slave of the Papacy. Should even a 
man's conscience condemn him, he must yet obey 
the Church. The Church is in fact to a man, as 
Joseph was to the Egyptians, in place of God; 
and can anyone doubt but that he ought to obey 
God rather than man ! 

But the Church is both truly Catholic and truly 
Protestant; for the two ideas are inseparable. 
Holding this truth she declares that the denomi- 
nationalists are so far right in believing in the su- 
premacy of conscience. She, too, teaches that 
the last authority in matters of faith is within, 



THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 26 1 



not without, a man. Not in the Bible, nor yet 
in the Church, but in himself does a man find 
that voice from which there is no appeal. A man 
must to his own self be true. It is only so that 
he can hear God's voice at all. 

But again coming forward she confesses that 
the Roman Catholic is also right in exalting the 
Church, believing in her and revering her, hold- 
ing that she has a divine mission here. She 
moreover solemnly affirms that short of that 
point where conscience whispers " obedience is 
sin," she has paramount authority. To seek her 
help and guidance, to yield loving obedience, to 
follow with a glad mind her godly admonitions 
in all things short of this great alternative, is 
the churchman's duty. In place of this obedience 
she can accept nothing ; not alms, not zeal, not 
great sacrifices. Her word is : " Behold, to obey 
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the 
fat of rams." 1 

For this, then, the Prayer-Book stands ; for 
the right of a Church to speak and teach with all 
authority, — consistent at once with the suprem- 
acy of the conscience and with the voice of the 
Church as recorded in Holy Scripture, or to be 

1 1 Sam. xv. 22. 



262 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



proved thereby ; confidently believing that it will 
never be found that these can differ. " What God 
hath joined together, let not man put asunder." 

2. Next, the Prayer-Book Stands for the 
Official Utterance of the Church on ritual and 
doctrine. It is her standard of faith and wor- 
ship. In it we "hear the Church/' It is true 
Catholicism applied in practice. Concerning the 
teaching of the Church, it is often said that it is 
all so contradictory that men know not what 
to believe. One voice goes forth among us here 
in America or from Canterbury, another from 
Rome, and yet a third from Moscow; and that 
in consequence the ordinary layman is left in a 
quandary. Which of these voices shall he hear? 
All, we answer, are without signification, save 
that of his own Church. Is he an American 
who asks this? We reply : In our Prayer-Book. 
But that, too, we shall be told, lacks uniformity, 
and is indefinite and contradictory. 

In his "Faith of Our Fathers" Cardinal Gibbons 
makes an attack upon our Church, based on this 
view. 1 To him this Church is a medley of contra- 
dictory teachings. He imagines, as a case in point, 
a bishop ordaining a young man to the priesthood 

1 Cf. Faith of Our Fathers, Eleventh Edition, 1879, p 408. 



THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 263 



with the solemn words : " Whosesoever sins ye for- 
give, they are forgiven, and whose sins ye retain, 
they are retained ; " and then immediately after 
the service giving the young priest to understand 
that he must not take these words seriously, as 
they are but a mere figure of speech, and mean 
nothing ! 

Now, we might fairly say that no merely hypo- 
thetical case can rightly claim our attention. The 
world is too full of great questions and real prob- 
lems, and life is too short, to justify our fighting 
shadows. Still, we will assume that such a case 
has actually occurred. What then can we say? 
Why, surely this: that no Church can be judged 
by the eccentricities of any disloyal member. 
Would the Cardinal desire that his own Church 
should thus be so judged ? We trow not. Yet, 
after putting himself on record in this way he 
ought to be prepared for it. " For with the same 
measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured 
to you again." 1 

The charge is one of inconsistency. Well, some 
of us may have been inconsistent, but at least we 
have not gone the length of giving Bibles to can- 
didates for confirmation in Maryland, and refus- 

1 Luke vi. 38. 



264 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



ing earnest petitions to be allowed to read them in 
Ireland and elsewhere ; 1 we have not, in one ward 
of an American city, forbidden our clergy under 
pains and penalties to marry, and in another have 
allowed them; we have not in some places for- 
bidden people to have service in. a tongue which 
they understand, teaching that Latin alone was 
the sacred language of prayer, and permitting it 
to them elsewhere ; we have not sanctioned 2 mar- 
riages between uncles and nieces in return for 
a weighty payment, and afterward boasted of the 
sacred strictness of our marriage laws. We have 
not two oaths for our Bishops— one for the use 
of such as are consecrated abroad, and one for the 
use of those consecrated within the United States 
—one binding the Bishop who takes it to perse- 
cute and attack heretics and schismatics, the 
other without it, 3 because, forsooth, her use of it 
here would bring the Church into discredit with 

1 See p. 227 of this book. 

2 Vide Foster's Peerage, 1881, p. 9, foot-note, title Acton, " having 

married in 1796 (by dispensation of the Pope) Mary Anne, elder daugh- 
ter of his [younger] brother, General Joseph Edward Acton (she was 
born in 17S2)." In this case dispensation was given to a man of sixty to 
marry his niece aged only fourteen ! 

See also the more recent case of the Duke of Aosta. 

3 In the discussion between the Rev. Thomas Vickers and the Roman 
Archbishop Purcell, in Cincinnati, in 1867, Mr. Vickers wrung from the 
archbishop the reluctant admission that for American Roman bishops 



THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 265 



every right-minded person in the land, and in 
Maryland, at all events, dispose more effectually 
of her grotesque claim to be the author of the 
Act of Toleration. And we have our reward. 
None have ever charged us with trickiness, with 
hunting with the hare and running with the 
hounds. We have never even been charged with 
that fault which the whole world knows as Jesu- 
itry. Eccentric and disloyal members we may 
have, who, either in the direction of Roman 
superstition or Puritan innovation, have erred 
and are teaching men so. But what of that? 
We call no man lord. What says the Book? By 
that we are willing to be judged, and by that 
only will we be condemned. 

Inconsistency may be the result of having no 
settled standard of faith and practice, or may be 
■an offence against discipline and organization. In 
our case it cannot be due to the first, for we have 
a clear and authoritative utterance on doctrine 
and worship. In the Book of Common Prayer it 
is enshrined ; and that book is no more responsible 
for disloyalty than the barque on the ocean is re- 



the "Episcopal oath" does not contain the obnoxious clause, "I will 
persecute and attack heretics, schismatics," etc. (haereticos schismaticos 
. . . pro posse persequar et impugnabo) . 



266 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



sponsible for the storms which sweep around it, 
or for the faithful discharge of their duty by its 
crew. 

The book is one and the same for all her chil- 
dren, wherever found. And to the loyal son its 
prayers and services, its teachings and rules are 
so clear that he cannot mistake them. We once 
heard of a clergyman who had the reputation of 
being invisible during the week and incompre- 
hensible on Sunday. But it could only have been 
in the pulpit that he was incomprehensible, for 
it was the remark of one who knew him : " Yes, 

Doctor X is hazy; but oh, those prayers 

out of that book of his — there is nothing hazy 
about them." 

3. It is the Christian's Manual of Devo- 
tion. Observe its system : 

" Distinct with signs, thro' which, in set career, 
As thro' a zodiac, moves the ritual year." 

All the doctrines of the faith, and all the great his- 
torical facts on which that faith so largely rests, 
are here in order brought before us. Around 
the person of our Lord all revolves, and in his 
mighty resurrection from the dead all culmi 
nates. 



THE PRAYER-BOOK IN THE CHURCH 267 



Beginning with Advent, this ritual year leads 
us at once to Christmas, when we think of Christ's 
fulfilment of ancient prophecy, and there we see, 
in very truth, Immanuel — God with us : then, one 
after another, come the great events in our Sav- 
iour's life, his miracles and parables, his holy, 
spotless example, his suffering, death, and Resur- 
rection, and so we tread the pathway of growing 
knowledge and deepening faith, till we learn of 
the Holy Ghost and the ever blessed Trinity. 

Then, too, we see how that gently as a mother 
cares for her little ones, so does the Church in 
this Prayer-Book deal with us. Milk for babes ; 
strong meat for men ; this is her method. Tak- 
ing us as infants a few days old, she baptizes us; 
then, as our minds develop, she trains us in the 
simplest matters of our holy religion, in the Lord's 
Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments ; 
then strengthens us by Confirmation ; then feeds 
us in the Holy Communion with angel's food, 
and at last, when she has thus watched over us 
through life, she buries us, with all our faults for- 
gotten, covering us with the robe of that bound- 
less " charity which hopeth all things, endureth 
all things, believeth all things." 1 

1 1 Cor. xiii. 7. 



268 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



And all this in the very words with which fifty 
generations of Christians have nourished their 
souls and drawn nearer to God. 

The Prayer-Book which is thus the Church's 
standard, is necessarily her missionary also— silent, 
but powerful like the Word of God itself, and 
sharper than any two-edged sword. " It is," said 
Dr. Adam Clarke, the learned and distinguished 
Methodist commentator, " the greatest effort of 
the Reformation next to the translation of the 
Bible. As a form of devotion it has no equal in 
any part of the Universal Church. Next to the 
Bible, it is the book of my understanding and of 
my heart." Would that it were such to all the 
scattered children of the Church ! 



XV. 

THE HYMNAL 

OR BOOK OF COMMON PRAISE 



XV. 



THE HYMNAL 

OR BOOK OF COMMON PRAISE 

" Si quaeris Deo placere, quanto cantabis simplicius, tanto 
magis ei placebis." — S. Bonaventura. 

The Church, in all her public services, restricts 
her clergy and congregations to the forms laid 
down in the Book of Common Prayer. Her 
practice in this matter is rigid. Even when 
Morning and Evening Prayer have been duly 
rendered, if a third Service is held it must be in 
. the words of that Book. That is the mine from 
which the material must be quarried ; the chan- 
nel through which must flow the streams of 
prayer and praise welling up from grateful hearts. 

Now in this the Church maintains a principle. 
It is that she is responsible, not only for the gen- 
eral conduct, but for all the details of Divine Ser- 
vice. Individual action, with its occasional idio- 
syncracies, its little oddities and eccentricities, 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



which in some spheres she loves to tolerate and 
even to encourage, here obtains no place or sanc- 
tion. Yet this is not tyranny. The very thought 
that it is will die away ere it finds expression in 
word, if we remember what the Church is. Is 
it not ourselves? "Now ye are the body of 
Christ, and members in particular ; " l — " the Tem- 
ple of the Lord are we." Churchmen, if they 
wished another law, might have another, but they 
do not wish it. The reign of law is for them per- 
fect liberty. 

But a Church which asserts this principle must 
be consistent. A Book of Common Prayer im- 
plies a Book of Common Praise. Clergy and 
people under law in the use of prose, may well 
beg not to be left a law unto themselves in the 
use of sacred song. Where, then, would be 
safety? Error carefully excluded in one way 
might find entry in another. Without an author- 
ized Hymnal the Church would be conducting 
her affairs as one who should look carefully to the 
fastenings of his doors at night yet leave the win- 
dows wide open. A hymn has often greater teach- 
ing power than a prayer. In the hands of Arms 
and other false teachers it was once a powerful 

1 1 Cor. xii. 27. 



THE HYMNAL 



273 



medium for the spread of false doctrine, and can 
easily become so again ; or it can be, on the other 
hand, a great means for the spread of the truth. 
Better, indeed, from this point of view, that the 
Church should leave to an irresponsible individ- 
ualism the framing of services and the making of 
prayers than the choice and use of hymns. 
Tempted to do otherwise, she might learn a les- 
son from him who said : " Let me write the 
songs of a people, and I care not who makes their 
laws." So let the Church say what hymns shall 
be sung, and she will find she need not be careful 
about aught else. 

Rightly, then, does our Church possess a 
Hymnal. In this respect our American Church 
stands far ahead of the Church of England, which 
has no official hymn-book. Not that the people 
of that Church do not think they need one ; they 
acknowledge that they do. The longing desire 
of one of her loyal sons, not long since, found vent 
in these words : "Would to God that the Church 
would give, without delay, all that is needed in 
the way of more offices and all that is needed in 
the way of a Book of Common Praise! Some 
serious troubles await the Church. With an en- 
richment of the Book of Common Prayer, with 
18 



2/4 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



common-sense adaptations to modern needs, and 
a really comprehensive Book of Common Praise, 
she might deal with them all, and come forth bet- 
ter, holier, and brighter than ever." The very 
thought of such a possession would be to them 
delightful. But their time has not yet come. Not 
until when, without effort and without party 
feeling, there can be a hymn-book, which in all its 
teachings shall be in harmony with their Prayer- 
Book, can that be. 

Meanwhile, practically, there is a standard 
book in England— a book which has quietly and 
without official patronage been steadily pressing 
forward into public favor, until it can now almost 
claim to be the chosen Hymnal of the Anglican 
Communion. This is the compilation usually 
known as " Hymns, Ancient and Modern." The 
extent to which this Hymnal is used appears from 
a report just issued by a Joint Committee of the 
two houses of the Convocation of Canterbury, 
wherein it is shown that 

Hymns, Ancient and Modern, are used in 10,340 churches. 

Hymnal Companion in 1,478 

Church Hymns in 1,462 " 

Various 379 « 

13,659 



THE HYMNAL 



275 



In the American Church we have passed through 
the embryo stage. Along with her standard Bible 
and Prayer-Book, our Church has her Book of 
Common Praise. We may be thankful for this, 
The book selected may not be the best. But a 
liturgical Church is committed to an official 
Hymn-Book. Concerning the value of the book 
itself, opinions may differ. In a collection of six 
hundred and seventy-nine hymns, we may expect 
to find hymns of varying merit. And we un- 
doubtedly shall. Besides the grandest and most 
sublime compositions we have some with no more 
poetry in them than has a proposition of Euclid. 
Some are not even true to the ideal of what a 
hymn should be. Yet we may rejoice that we 
have a book of hymns which has received the 
sanction of our Church. And in any case let us 
•remember how great an improvement it registers. 

In 1640 the first Hymn-Book printed in America 
appeared. It was " The Psalms in Metre, Faith- 
fully Translated for the Use, Edification, and Com- 
fort of the Saints, in Public and Private, especial- 
ly in New England." " If," say the translators, 
"our verses are not always so smooth and elegant 
as some may desire and expect, let them con- 
sider that God's altar needs not our polishings," 



276 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



The two following verses may serve to show 
how little polishing had been done : 

" The Lords song sing can wee, being 
In stranger's land ? then let 
Lose her skill my right hand if I 
Jerusalem forget. 

" Let cleave my tongue my pallate on 
If mind thee doe not I, 
If chiefe joyes o'er I prize not more 
Jerusalem my joy." 

Among the translators and versifiers of this 
elegant New England Psalter, was John Elliott, 
the Apostle of the Indians. Yet, notwithstanding 
the spell of Elliott's name, we may be thankful we 
have nothing like this now ! 

What is the object of the hymn writer, and 
why do we sing hymns? 

1. To teach men about God. 

This Church is a teaching Church. This teach- 
ing is primarily conveyed by means of collects 
and portions of Scripture. A Hymn-Book of the 
Church ought to conform itself to the mind of the 
Church and follow her example in this respect. 
But the Churchmanship of to-day is of a different 
type from that which prevailed even half a cen- 



THE HYMNAL 



277 



tury ago. It is a social Churchmanship, a realiza- 
tion of the Kingdom of God as a present posses- 
sion. Within the last twenty-five years the 
Church has learned many lessons. She has heard 
new calls; she has realized new responsibilities. 
It is not merely that she is to preach to men 
about their souls, but she realizes that she has to 
preach to them about their bodies also. She 
seeks their present salvation as well as their fut- 
ure. Her work is for men, not for disembodied 
spirits. Like Wisdom, she says, "Unto you, O 
men, I call ; and my voice is to the sons of man." 
2. To glorify God. 

Worship must be so offered that the worshipper 
can take his part intelligently. S. Paul says: "I 
will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the 
understanding also." 1 And S. Augustine, in S. 
Paul's spirit, pertinently asks : 

" Would'st thou the Almighty Father please ? " 

and thus answers himself : 

" Thou must approach the throne ; not seek 
To gratify self-pleasing sense 
Of Music's powers, but dread to win 
Vain praise for perfected success ; 

1 1 Cor. xiv. , 15. 



278 IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



Not strive to weave a complex thread 
Of harmonies — for simple souls 
Too high — with words wherein to pour 
An offering meet to Him you would adore." 

Here are two features of the ideal hymn : It 
ought to teach men : It ought not to be a mere 
medium for the expression of the personal feel- 
ing of the individual. If true to this standard, 
it will give utterance to the united mind of the 
faithful, as with one heart and voice they praise 
and magnify God. 

The Book of Praise, in which our hymns are 
collected, differs from the Book of Prayer in two 
noteworthy particulars :— 

(i) The Book of Praise is new. The Book of 
Prayer is old. Some hymns, indeed, are not 
new. At the first Eucharistic Service a hvmn 
was sung by our Lord and His Apostles. It mat- 
ters not whether it was one of the series of Psalms 
called the Hallel/ or not. The modern distinc- 
tion between hymns and psalms is entirely arbi- 
trary. Bede speaks of the wdiole Book of Psalms 
as called by the universal consent of Hebrews, 
Greeks, and Latins, " Liber Hymnorum." In 
early times indeed, any act of praise to God was 

1 Cxiii.-cxviii. 



THE HYMNAL 



279 



called a hymn, provided only that it was sung. 
Afterward the term was confined to the restric- 
tive use it now has. 

But even in this restrictive sense, hymns are 
as old as Christianity itself. The New Testa- 
ment gives us several. The first recorded is the 
Magnificat of the B. V. M. at the house of her 
cousin Elizabeth. Then follow the Benedictus and 
the Nunc Dimittis. In the first Liturgies two 
hymns are found enshrined, for what is the Te 
Deum Laudamus but a magnificent hymn of tri- 
umphant praise, the noblest Latin hymn we pos- 
sess ? Yet, grand as this hymn is, it is not more 
to the Western Church than the Gloria in Excel- 
sis, which so beautifies our Communion Service, 
is to the Eastern, — the more so as its composition 
dates back to the first century. 

After the New Testament and the Liturgic 
Hymns of the first ages, there are hymns of the 
Mediaeval era. Of these, six shine with superla- 
tive brightness. They are the Dies Iras, the Sta- 
bat Mater, the Mater Speciosa, the Yeni Sancte 
Spiritus, the Yeni Creator Spiritus, the Vexilla 
Regis, and the Celestial Country. Of these, the 
Dies Irae is the most sublime, the Mater Speciosa 
the most tender, the Stabat Mater the most, pa- 



2bO IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 

thetic, and the Celestial Country the most beauti- 
ful—while the two Hymns to the Holy Spirit 
sound the lowest depths of the soul's inner life, 
and give utterance to that adoring awe and rev- 
erence with which man should approach the Most 
High. 

But the ancient materials are not many ; for the 
bulk of our Hymnal is modern; the making and 
using of hymns on a large scale beginning with 
Dr. Isaac Watts, in 1705. In the course of that 
century thousands of hymns appeared, but Watts 
was the pioneer. There are now said to be 20,000 
hymns in the English language, all in use some- 
where. Even as late as sixty years ago, hymns 
were unpopular, and regarded as Methodistical ; 
the Non-conformists using them more than did 
Church people. In many of our churches the 
services were often merely read ; in others there 
was an excess of operatic music, often badly per- 
formed. But the number of the hymn writers 
now in the Church, and the beauty of their com- 
positions, make honorable amends for the past. 

(2) But there is another distinction. The Prayer- 
Book is the work of the most devout, the most 
loyal, and the most distinguished sons the Church 
has had ; all however Clergy. Probably there is 



THE HYMNAL 



28l 



not a voice there which is not the voice of an or- 
dained minister of the Lord. 

The Hymnal, on the contrary, contains not the 
work of the Clergy only, but of the laymen, and 
of the gifted women of the Church. Here their 
words appear side by side with those of bishop 
and archbishop. Nor is this all. In the Hymnal 
we often hear the voices of those who, while the 
Church's children, as all baptized persons must 
be, yet have not known the mother that bore 
them. All are not Churchmen who are of the 
Church. Such, for example, were Isaac Watts 
himself and Philip Doddridge. They were fa- 
mous Congregational ministers in their day. Yet 
the Church has lovingly placed their sacred songs 
among the songs of the most loyal of her chil- 
dren. 

Here is Catholicity, not in word, but in deed ; 
for the Hymnal is common ground. Layman and 
priest, separatist and churchman, all meet here in 
a goodly company, and their voices are blended 
together in one triumphant song of praise. May 
we not hope that in this we have a foretaste of 
that final blending into one sweet harmonious 
note, when we shall all learn to sing the New 
Song before the throne of God. Our Hymnal, if 



282 



IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH 



for nothing else, is dear to us as the first great 
step toward practical unity, when " Ephraim shall 
not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Eph- 
raim." 1 

There is a power in hymns that never dies ; 
easily learned in the days of childhood and of 
youth ; often repeated ; seldom, if ever, forgotten ; 
—they abide with us, a most precious heritage 
among all the changes of our earthly life. They 
form a fitting and most welcome expression for 
every kind of deep religious feeling; they are 
with us to speak of faith and hope in hours of 
trial and sorrow • with us to animate to all Chris- 
tian effort ; with us as the rich consolation of in- 
dividual hearts, and as one common bond of fel- 
lowship between the living members of Christ's 
mystical Body. 

1 Isaiah xi. 13. 



APPENDICES 



APPENDIX I. 



DATES INTERESTING TO AMERICAN CHURCHMEN. 

A.D. 

33. The Church founded at Jerusalem (Acts ii. — see Acts xi. 26). 
43-61. Christian missionaries arrive in Britain. 
207. ''Parts of Britain inaccessible to the Romans become sub- 
ject to Christ." 

304. Martyrdom of Alban at Verulam, Britain's proto-martyr. 
314. Three British bishops represent the British Church in a 

council held at Aries in France. 1 
431. Patrick goes from Britain as a missionary to Ireland. 
597. First Italian mission enters Britain. 

597-672. Native and Italian missionaries separately work for 
the complete conversion of the inhabitants of Britain. 

673. The various missions are consolidated, and under Arch- 
bishop Theodore, a National Church of England comes 
into existence. 

1066-1070. The English Church begins to fall under domina- 
tion of Rome. 

121 5. King John is compelled to sign the famous Magna Charta, 

1 On the occasion of the celebration of Mr. Gladstone's eighty-fifth 
birthday anniversary an interesting incident occurred. The Arme- 
nian congregation in London presented to Hawarden Church a chalice, 
as a token of respect for its distinguished parishioner, and in their 
address of congratulation referred to the antiquity of their Church, 
which dated back to A.D. 302, and had remained ever since an in- 
dependent national Church. With his usual felicity, Mr. Gladstone, 
in his response, said he could rightly claim for the Church of the 
country in which they were then standing, an antiquity fully equal to 
theirs, for, in A.D. 310, three British bishops were present at a coun- 
cil in France. 



286 



APPENDIX L 



the Archbishop of Canterbury (Stephen Langton as- 
sisting the Barons against Pope Innocent III.) saying: 
" The English Church shall be free." 

1497. John Cabot discovers the mainland of America and takes 
possession for England and for the English Church. 

1 534. England formally withdraws from the papal allegiance. 

1559. Matthew Parker is consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury 

in the Chapel at Lambeth by Bishops Barlow of Chich- 
ester, Hodgkins of Bedford, Coverdale of Exeter, and 
Scory of Hereford. 

1560. Pius IV. offers to recognize the English Church, provided 

she recognizes him as pope and yields him obedience. 
157S. Frobishers chaplain celebrates the Holy Communion in 
Newfoundland ; first recorded celebration in the New 
World. 

1 5 79- Second Italian mission enters England. 

1579. Rev. Francis Fletcher holds service on the Pacific Coast, 

at Drake's Bay, Cal. 
15S7. First recorded native baptism on the Atlantic Coast, at 

Roanoke, N. C. 

1557. First child born of English parents in New World— Vir- 

ginia Dare— is baptized at Roanoke. 

1558. Sixtus V., Bishop of Rome, unsuccessfully assists the 

Spanish Armada against England. 
15SS. Sir Walter Raleigh sends a donation M for the propagation 

of the Christian religion " at Roanoke. 
1607. First church built in New England, erected bv Churchmen 

at Fort St. George, Sagadahoc, Me. 
1607. First recorded sermon in New England, by Rev. Richard 

Seymour, a clergyman of the Church of England. 
1607. First recorded celebration of the Holy Communion on the 

mainland of America, in the church at Jamestown. Va. 
1619. First elected representative body on this continent meets 

in Jamestown Church, and after prayers by the rector, 

legislates for the Church and Commonwealth. 
1632. Charles I., a Churchman, gives Cecil Calvert, a Roman 

Catholic, the Charter of .Maryland. 



APPENDIX I. 



287 



1633. Churchmen in Maryland from the first are styled " Prot- 
estant Catholicks." 

1636. Archbishop Laud develops a plan for a North American 
Episcopate. 

1649. The Act of Toleration in Maryland passed mainly under 

Protestant influences. 
1649. Ordinance of Cromwell for " propagating the Gospel of 

Jesus Christ " in New England. 
1692. Parishes in Maryland legally constituted under the Church 

of England. 

1700. The celebrated Rev. Dr. Bray visits Maryland as com- 

missary of the Bishop of London. 

1701. On Dr. Bray's return " The Society for the Propagation of 

the Gospel" is founded in England. 1 

1702. Revs. George Keith and Patrick Gordon, the first mis- 

sionaries of the S. P. G., sail from England and land at 
Boston in New England. 
1736. Rev. John Wesley two years a missionary of the S. P. G. 
in Georgia. 

1736. Rev. Thomas Thompson of New Jersey sails for the 
Gold Coast; the first missionary of English-speaking 
people to Africa. 

1738. A missionary of the S. P. G. to the Mohawk Indians re- 
ports a church of 500 members with 50 communicants. 

1740. The S. P. G. establishes Trinity School, at New York, for 
the Mohawks. 

1774. The rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Philadelphia, 

opens " in full canonicals " the first congress of the 
United Colonies. 

1775. Patrick Henry, a devout Churchman, sounds in Virginia 

the keynote of the coming struggle for independence — 
" Give me liberty or give me death." 

1776. Richard Henry Lee, a Churchman, offers the resolution 

declaring the thirteen colonies to be " free and inde- 
pendent States." 
1782. The Aitkin Bible printed by order of Congress. 

1 This society is commonly called the S. P. G. 



288 



APPENDIX I. 



1783. Dr. Samuel Seabury, an S. P. G. missionary, is elected 
Bishop of Connecticut. 

1753. Our American Church first styled "Protestant Episco- 

pal" 1 

1754. Dr. Seabury is consecrated a bishop in Scotland. 

1755. The proposed Book of Common Prayer offered for adop- 

tion by our General Convention, but not accepted. 
1787. The first Bishops of Pennsylvania and New York (Drs. 
White and Provoost) are duly consecrated in the Chapel 
at Lambeth Palace, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

1789. Ratification of our Book of Common Prayer at the Gen- 

eral Convention in Philadelphia. 

1790. The first Bishop of Virginia (Dr. James Madison) con- 

secrated in England ; he was the last of our bishops 
consecrated abroad. 

179^. Thomas John Claggett is consecrated Bishop of Mary- 
land, in Trinity Church, New York ; the first consecra- 
tion of a bishop in the United States. 

1895. Washington, the Capital of .this nation, is made the see 
city of a Diocese in our church— over 170 bishops having 
been meanwhile consecrated by our Church in America 
since 1792, when Washington was included in the 
Diocese of Maryland. 

1 As to the first appearance, or official sanction of our present legal 
title, "Protestant Episcopal:" Bishoo Perry, in his History of the 
American Episcopal Church, says (vol. ii, p. 5), that it was first used 
by a representative body in Maryland, in 17S3. The document is now 
m the archives of the General Convention, and has the following title- 
paragraph : "A Declaration of fundamental Rights & Liberties of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland ; had and made at a 
Convention or Meeting of the Clergv of said Church, duly assembled at 
Annapolis, August 13, 1783, agreeable to a vote of the General Assem- 
bly passed upon a petition presented in the Name and Behalf of the 
said Clergy." 



APPENDIX II. 



Organized dioceses of the Church in the United States, with the dates of 
the Conventions, Diocesan or General, in which they first appear [although 
not possessing, it may be, any true diocesan organization at the time], and 
the dates of their completed organization under bishops. 1 



First Bishop. 



Consecrated. 



Connecticut, 1783 

* Pennsylvania, 1784 ...... 

* New York, 1785. , ' 

Virginia, 1785 ........... : 

* Maryland, 1780 

* South Carolina, 1785. . 
^Massachusetts, 1784 

* New jersey, 1784 

Ohio, 1817' 

North Carolina, 1790 , . „ 

* s Vermont, 1790 

Kentucky, 1829 

Tennessee, 1828 

tt Illinois, 1835 

Michigan, 1832 



Samuel Seabury 14 Nov., 1784, 

in Scotland. 

William White 4 Feb. , 1787, 

in England. 

Samuel Provoost «.=,.. 4 Feb., 1787, 

in England. 

James Madison 19 Sept., 1790, 

in England. 

Thomas John Claggett 17 Sept., 1792, 

by all four of 
the above. 

Robert Smith 13 Sept., 1795. 

Edward Bass 7 May, 1797. 

John Croes 19 Nov., 1815. 

Philander Chase n Feb., 1819. 

John Stark Ravenscroft 22 May, 1823. 

John Henry Hopkins 31 Oct., 1832. 

Benjamin Bosworth Smith. . . 31 Oct., 1832. 

James Hervey Otey 14 Jan. , 1834, 

fr. Mis. Jurisd. 

Philander Chase n Feb. , 1819, 

, styled " Chica- 
go," fr. 1S83. 

Samuel Allen McCoskry 7 July, 1836. 



1 It is a common error to suppose that a Missionary Bishop, Assistant Bishop, Suf- 
fragan Bishop, or Bishop Coadjutor, is not a " full bishop. 1 " That this error is not 
merely of the unlearned, will appear from the tablet inscription in S. Paul's Church, 
Baltimore, set up to the memory of Bishop Kemp, in which he is described as " Con- 
secrated Suffragan Bishop, September 1st. 1S14 — succeeded to the full Episcopate a.d. 
1816." The truth is that Bishop Kemp was as much a bishop on the day of his consecra- 
tion as he ever was. No assistant in a parish who should be appointed to the rector- 
ship could be accurately described as having succeeded to the full priesthood. So 
every bishop is a full bishop— there are no deacons in Episcopal orders. Once a 
bishop, always a bishop. He may resign his diocese, but he cannot resign the episco- 
pate ; that is indelible. 

19 



zgo 



APPENDIX II. 



Appendix Yl.—Contintied. 



Diocese. 



First Bishop. 



Consecrated. 



Western New York, 1838. ' Wm. Heathcote De Lancey 



Georgia, 1823 . . 
t Louisiana, 180 k 



Stephen Elliott. 
Leonidas Polk . 



* Delaware, 1786 

** Rhode Island, 1790 

**New Hampshire, 1802 , 

t Alabama, 1830 

Missouri, 1839 

** Maine, 1820 



Alfred Lee 

John Prentiss Kewly Hensha" 

Carlton Chase 

Nicholas Hamner Cobbs '. '. .' 
Cicero Stephens Hawks. 
George Burgess 



Indiana, 1838 

t Mississippi, 1825 

Florida, 1838 

Wisconsin, 1847. . 



George Upfold 

William Mercer Green '.' 

Francis Huger Rutledge ... 
I Jackson Kemper 



Iowa, 1853 

California, 1850 . 

Texas, 1849 

Minnesota, 1857. 

Kansas, 1859 

Pittsburg, 186^. . 



! Henry Washington Lee . . , 
William Ingraham Kip 

Alexander Gregg 

Henry Benjamin Whipple. 
Thomas Hubbard Vail. 
John Barrett Kerfoot. '. 



Nebraska, i863 

Long Island. 1868 

Albany, 1868 

Easton, 1868 

Central New York, 1S68. 

Arkansas, 1871 

Central Penn., 1871 

Northern N. J., 1874 

Western Michigan, 1874. 
Southern Ohio, 1875. 



Robert Harper Clarkson 

Abram Newkirk Littlejohn . . 

William Croswell Doane 

Henry Champlin Lav 

Frederic Dan Huntington . . . 

! Henry Niles Pierce 

Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe 
William Henry Odenheimer. 

Geo. De Normandie Gillespie 
Thomas Augustus Jagger . . . 



9 May, 1839, 
fr. New York. 
. 28 Feb., 1841. 
9 Dec, 1838, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 
. 12 Oct., 1841. 
• 11 Aug., 1843. 
20 Oct., 1844. 
20 Oct., 1844. 
20 Oct., 1844. 
31 Oct., 1847, 
I fr. Mass, 
! 16 Dec, 1849. 
! 24 Feb,, 18^0. 
15 Oct., 1851. 
25 Sept., 1835, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd., 
■ Milwaukee," 
1886. 

18 Oct., 1854. 
28 Oct., 1853, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 
13 Oct., 1S59. 
23 Oct., 1859. 
15 Dec, 1864. 
25 Jan., 1866, 

fr. Penn. 
15 Nov., 1865, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 
27 Jan."; 1869, 
fr. New York. 
2 Feb., 1869, 
I fr. New York. 

23 Oct., 1859, 
fr Maryland. 
8 April,' 1869, 

fr. New York. 
25 Jan., 1870, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 
28 Dec , 1871, 

fr. Penn. 
13 Oct., 1859, 
fr. N. J., "New- 
ark," 1886. 

24 Feb., 1875, 
fr. Michigan. 

28 April, 1875, 
fr. Ohio. 



APPENDIX II. 

Appendix II. — Continued. 



291 



Diocese. 



Consecrated. 



Fond du Lac, 1875 1 

Quincy, 1877 

West Virginia, 1877. 

Springfield, 1877 

East Carolina, 1883 

Colorado, 1887 

Oregon, 18S9 

West Missouri, 1890 

Southern Virginia, 1S92 . . 

Washington, 1895 

Northern Texas, 1895. . . . 



John Henry Hobart Brown. 

Alexander Burgess 

George William Peterkin. . . 
George Franklin Seymour. . 
Alfred Augustin Watson . . 
John Franklin Spalding. . . . 
Benjamin Wistar Morris. . . . 

Edward Robert At will 

Alfred Magill Randolph. . . . 



Alexander Charles Garrett. 



Kentucky, 1895. 



California, 1895. 
Marquette, 1895 



15 Dec, 1875, 
fr. Wisconsin. 
15 May, 1878, 
fr. Illinois. 

30 May, 1878, 
fr. Virginia. 

11 June, 1878, 

fr. Illinois. 
17 April, 1&84, 
fr. N. Carolina. 

31 Dec, 1873, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 

3 Dec, 1868, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 
14 Oct., 1890, 
ft. Missouri. 
21 Oct., 1883, 
fr. Virginia, 
fr. Maryland. 
20 Dec. , 1874, 
fr. Mis. Jurisd. 
fr. Kentucky. 

fr. California, 
fr. Michigan. 



* Dioceses marked thus (* (before their organization as dioceses were represented^ by 
clerical and lay deputies from their several States in a convention which met at IS e w 
York in October, 1784. 

.** The Eastern Diocese was a confederation of four of the New England dioceses — 
Massachusetts [including Maine]. Rhode Island. New Hampshire, and Vermont— for 
the purpose of securing a bishop who might serve for them all. Massachusetts had al- 
ready had two bishops, but they had both died soon after consecration. The first con- 
vention of the Eastern Diocese was held May 9, 1810, when delegates, both clerical 
and lay, from the four dioceses were present, and the Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold 
was elected Bishop, and he was consecrated May 29, 181 1. This diocese dissolved of 
itself in 1843, when Bishop Griswold died. In 1841 Massachusetts had elected an As- 
sistant Bishop to Bishop Griswold, to serve in that State— the Rev. Manton Eastburn, 
consecrated Assistant Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, and he became simply Bishop of 
Massachusetts on Bishop Griswold' s death. Vermont had already elected a bishop 
in 1832. So that at the time of his death Bishop Griswold was in reality Bishop of 
Rhode Island and New Hampshire, with the title of Bishop of the Eastern Diocese. 

+ " The Dioceses of Mississippi and Alabama, and the churches and clergy in the 
State of Louisiana were authorized to associate and join in the election of a Bishop," 
by the General Convention of October, 1S32. In accordance with this permission 
delegates from those three dioceses met in New Orleans March 4. 1S35, adopted a 
Constitution for a General Diocese under the name of the South Western Diocese, and 
elected the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D.D., to be their Bishop ; but he declined, and it 
does not appear that there ever was any other convention held under that authority. 

++ Bishop Chase, consecrated 1819, i-esigned Ohio in 1831 and went into the West, 
where he became Bishop of Illinois in 1835. 



APPENDIX III. 



The Senior Bishops of the American Church. 

(The " Presiding Bishops " are marked with for distinction.) 

"If i. Samuel Seabury, Bp. of Connecticut, 14 Nov., 1784; 

died 25th Feb., 1796 = 11 y. 3 m. 
T 2. William White, Bp. of Pennsylvania, 4 Feb., 1787 ; died 

17th July, 1836 = 40 y. 5 m. 
If 12. Alex. Viets Griswold, Bp. of Eastern Diocese, 29 May, 

181 1 ; died 15th Feb., 1843 = 6 y. 7 m. 
T 18. Philander Chase, Bp. of (Ohio tr. to) Illinois, 11 Feb., 

1819 ; died 20th Sept., 1852 = 9 y. 7 m. 
IT 19. Thos. Church Brownell, Bp. of Connecticut, 27 Oct., 

1819; died 13th Jan., 1865 = 12 y. 4 m. 
[25. Levi Silliman Ives, Bp. of N. Carolina, 22 Sept., 1831 ; 

dep. 1853 ; died 13th Oct., 1867.] 
IT 26. John Henry Hopkins, Bp. of Vermont, 31 Oct., 1832; 

died 9th Jan., 1868 = 3 y. 
T 27. Benj. Bosworth Smith, Bp. of Kentucky, 31 Oct., 1832 ; 

died 31st May, 1884 = 16 y. 5 m. 
[32. Saml. Allen McCoskry, Bp. of Michigan, 7 July, 1836; 

res. 1878 ; died 1st Aug., 1886.] 
IT 38. Alfred Lee, Bp. of Delaware, 12 Oct., 1841 ; died 12th 

Apl, 1887 = 2 y. 10 m. 
t 47. Horatio Southgate, Miss. Bp. of Constantinople, 26 Oct., 

1844 [res. 1850] died 12th Apl., 1894 == 7 y. 
IT 54. John Williams, Bp. of Connecticut, 29 Oct., 1851 ; be- 
came presiding Bp. on death of Bp. Lee, April, 1887 ; 

Senior Bp. on death of Bp. Southgate, April, 1 1894; up 

to present time, 14 Oct., 1895, he has been Senior Bp. 1 



APPENDIX III. 



293 



y. 6 m. Thus from 14 Nov., 1784, to 14 Oct., 1895, 
is in the total = noy. 11 m. 

*Bishop Seabury, always the Senior American Bishop, was Pre- 
siding Bishop on Oct. 21, 1789, thereafter (1789-1796) the rank 
of Presiding Bishop was usurped by Bishop White. This usur- 
pation was defended on the ground that Bishop Seabury's con- 
secration by non-juring bishops was irregular ; and also because 
he was drawing a pension from the British Government. But 
in the first place, Bishop White's own consecration might have 
been impugned on the same ground, for he himself was distinctly 
a non-juror ; and in the second place, Bishop Seabury's reten- 
tion of his "half pay" did not put him under such permanent 
obligation to the British Government as did the acceptance by 
Bishops White, Provoost and Madison, of their Episcopal orders 
at the hands of their English consecrators— for those three bishops 
only obtained English consecration under an Enabling Act of 
the British Parliament and by the grace and favor of duly sworn 
Privy Councillors of Great Britain acting under the King's Royal 
Warrant. On Bishop Seabury's death, however, Bishop White 
became Presiding Bishop by undoubted right of seniority. 

t It will be observed that Bishop Southgate was Senior Bishop 
from April, 1887, till his death in April, 1894. During all that 
time, however, Bishop Williams was Presiding Bishop, and justly 
so, inasmuch as Bishop Southgate had no regular See. But had 
Bishop Southgate, after his return from Constantinople, been 
elected to a diocese, he would at once have become Presiding 
Bishop in place of Bishop Williams ! ! 

Perhaps nothing more clearly shows the need of some effec- 
tive legislation upon the always important subject as to what 
bishop shall be the Primate of our American Church. 



APPENDIX IV. 



LIST OF THE PRESENT MISSIONARY BISHOPS, WITH THEIR 
SEVERAL JURISDICTIONS, 1895. 

(The marginal numbers refer to the Succession of American Bishops.) 



These jurisdictions are not " dioceses,'' though sometimes so styled. 



{Missionary bishops abroad are not included in this list.) 

100. Wm. Hobart Hare, Miss. Bp. of Niobrara, 9 Jan., 1873 
[Niobrara included the Dakotas] ; became Miss. Bp. of 
South Dakota in 1883, relinquishing North Dakota. 

107. John Henry Ducachet Wingfieid, Miss. Bp. of Northern 
California, 2 Nov., 1874. [Territory taken from Cali- 
fornia.] 

126. Leigh Richmond Brewer, Miss. Bp. of Montana 8 Dec 
1880. 

133. Wm. David Walker, Miss. Bp. of North Dakota, 20 
Dec, 1883. [Territory taken from Niobrara, divided 
into North and South Dakota.] 

143. Ethelbert Talbot, Miss. Bp. of Wyoming and Idaho 

27 May, 1887. 

144. James Steptoe Johnson, Miss. Bp. of Western Texas, 

6 Jan., 1888. [Territory taken from Texas, Robert W. 
Barnwell Elliott, 1st Miss. Bp., 15 Nov., 1874; died 22 
Aug., 1887.] 

145. Abiel Leonard, Miss. Bp. of Nevada and Utah, 25 

Jan., 1888. [Daniel S. Tuttle, 1st Miss. Bp. of Utah, 1 
May, 1867, translated to Missouri in 1886; Ozi W. 



APPENDIX IV. 



295 



Whitaker, 1st Miss. Bp. of Nevada, 13 Oct., 1869, trans- 
lated Assistant to Pennsylvania in 1886.] 

47. John Mills Kendrick, Miss. Bp. of New Mexico and 
Arizona, 18 Jan., 1889. [Wm. F. Adams, 1st Miss. 
Bp., 17 Jan., 1875, resigned in 1876, is now Bp. of 
Easton ; George K. Dunlop, 2d Miss. Bp., 21 Nov., 1880 ; 
died 12 March, 1888.] 

53. Anson Rogers Graves, Miss. Bp. of The Platte, i Jan., 
1890. [Territory taken from Nebraska, i.e. Western 
Nebraska.] 

63. Lemuel Henry Wells, Miss. Bp. of Spokane, 16 Dec, 

1892. [Spokane is Eastern Washington; Thos. F. 
Scott, 1st Miss. Bp. of Oregon and Washington Territory, 
8 Jan., 1854 ; died 14 July, 1867 ; Benj . W. Morris, 2d 
Miss. Bp. of O. and W. Terr., 3 Dec, 1868, became Miss. 
Bp. of Oregon in 1880 ; John A. Paddock, 3d Miss. Bp. 
of Washington, 15 Dec, 1880, became Miss. Bp. of 
Olympia in 1892, relinquishing Spokane.] 

64. Wm. Crane Gray, Miss. Bp, of Southern Florida, 27 

Dec, 1892. [Territory taken from Florida.] 

65. Francis Key Brooke, Miss. Bp. of Oklahoma, 6 Jan., 

1893. [His jurisdiction includes also the whole Indian 
Territory.] 

66. Wm. Morris Barker, Miss. Bp. of Western Colorado, 

25 Jan., 1893. [Territory taken from Colorado.] He be- 
came Miss. Bp. of Olympia in 1895. [Olympia is 
Western Washington ; Thos. F. Scott, 1st Miss. Bp. of 
Oregon and Washington Territory, 8 Jan., 1854 ; died 14 
July, 1867 ; Benj. W. Morris, 2d Miss. Bp. of O. and W. 
Terr., 3 Dec, 1868, became Miss. Bp. of Oregon in 
1880; John A, Paddock, 3d Miss. Bp. of Washington, 
15 Dec, 1880, became Miss. Bp, of Olympia in 1892, 
relinquishing Spokane, and died 4 March, 1894.] 

Peter Trimble Rowe [Elect], Miss. Bp. of Alaska. 

... - Miss. Bp. of Asheville, N. C. 

Miss. Bp. of Duluth. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



THE OLD CHURCH IN THE 
NEW LAND. 

Lectures on Church History. 

By the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, Rector of St. Michael and All 
Angels 1 , Baltimore. With a Preface by the Bishop of Mary- 
land. 121110, $1.25. 

" We heartily endorse the recommendation of the Bishop of Maryland, 
and we go further ; we should say that this little book is perhaps the very 
best historical account of the Church of England for family reading that we 
have ever seen ; and an attentive congregation to which these lectures 
should be read would be well prepared to vindicate the position of the An- 
glican Church against the assaults of either Rome or Geneva. It is not a 
controversial book, but its statements are so plain as to make agreement 
superfluous. M — Church Standard, Philadelphia. 

11 Here is a book for every member of the Brotherhood to own and study.'' 

—St. Andrews 1 Cross, N. Y. 

"The book ought to be widely read. It is full of life and movement. 
The writer has clothed the dry bones of ecclesiastical history with a cornel v 
and attractive form , and breathed into it the breath of life." . . . They 
differ in several important points from anything which has been published 
before in America. . . . For the general reader, for the young, and for 
those uniformed as to the history of our Mother Church, for the "season of 
Lent, for lay readers, and for Parish libraries, this will be found an almost 
invaluable book." — Churchman, N. Y. 

" The lectures give a very clear and succinct account of the rise, source, 
and progress of the Christian Church, of the early heroes of Christianity, 
such as St. Patrick and St. Columba, the Anglican Church under the Saxons , | 
under the Normans, the Reformation, Puritanism, and lastlv the American 
Church. There is an especially interesting chapter devoted to 'Shakespeare, 
a son of the Reformation. "'—National Church. 



CALL TO CONFIRMATION. 

A Manual of Instruction for Candidates. 

By the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, M.A., Rector of the Church of 
St. Michael and All Angels', Baltimore, Md., author of " The 
Old Church in the New Land," "In the Household of Faith.' , 
i8mo, paper covers, 12 cents net; or bound in cloth, 25 cents. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. 



NEW BOOKS. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF BELIEF: Being Notes Introduc- 
tory to the Study of Theology. 

By t he Right Hon. Arthur James Balfour, author of " A Defence 
of Philosophic Doubt." Crown 8vo, 374 pages, 82. 00. ^ eICnCe 

"Mr Balfour s 'Foundations of Belief is a book rather of rW™^; a «. 
constructive criticism. It succeeds to a very remarkable decree i 1 V han 

the pretensions of materialistic science to^d^^ole^rf human In™? 
edge and belief under the term naturalism. The author ha been s ucce^^l in 
showing hat religious instinct and theology stand ^i^J^oi^^L l 
metaphysic basis of belief which is, at least' as stron° -as , , 1 a 

PERS s™° P N A r- j°"RANCE: c "Bei"; N ,hf h»;«,„ 

Lectures Preachea betore the University of Cambridge in 
1893-4. & 

By M. Creighton, D.D., Oxon. and Cam., Lord Bishop of Peter- 
borough. Crown Svo, cloth, $1.25. 

A LENT IN LONDON: A Course of Sermons on Social 
Subjects Organized by the London Branch of the Christian 
Social Union, and Preached in the Churches of St Edmund 
Lombard Street, and St. Mary-le-Strand, during Lent, 1895' 

With a Preface by Henry Scott Holland, M.A., Canon and Pre- 
centor of St. Paul s. Crown Svo, $1.25. 
*** This volume contains Sermons by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rev 
^-S U !? d o M r Clure > M - A -« Re ^- T. Hancock. M.A, Rev R R £2 Rev 
Wilfrid Richmond, M.A, Rev. K. Russell Wakefield, M. A.', L J Lhve vn 
Davies.D.D, Rev. Bernard R.Wilson, M.A., Rev. T Charles Cox IT h pqa 
Rev H. C Shuttleworth M.A., Rev. Canon Strnet M "A, lev SteWart D* 
Headlam, B^\, Rev. Prebendary Harrv Tones, M.A , Rev GSarson M \ 
rSJh^ ? e % mer \?^ S eV - Canon Henry Scott H oil an d , M . A Re v E*f' 
Russell, M.A, Rev. W. C. G. Lang, M.A, Rev, A. Chandler M A Rev Pre* 
b^yEyton, Rev. T. C. Fry, D.D, Rev. A. L. Lilley, M . A. , " and' Rev. W C. 

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN KETTLEWELL 
With Details of the History of the Non-jurors. 

By the author of "Nicholas Ferrar : His Household and His 
Friends." Edited, with an Introduction, by the Rev T T 
Carter, M.A., Hon. Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. Crowri 
8vo, $1.75. 

NEW BOOK BY A. K. H. B. 
OCCASIONAL AND IMMEMORIAL DAYS. 



By the \ ery Rev. A. K. H. Boyd, D.D. (Edin.), LL.D. (St. And ) 
First Minister of St. Andrews ; author of " Twenty-five Years 
of St. Andrews," " The Recreations of a Country Parson," etc. 
Crown Svo, $2.00. 

* 1* Th | S Y° ll ; me consists of Discourses which have not appeared in any peri- 
odical, and which are not autobiographical. 

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. 



A SELECTED LIST 

OF 

RECENT THEOLOGICAL BOOKS 



PUBLISHED BY 

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
NEW YORK 



BISHOP A. C. A. HALL. 

The Virgin Mother. Retreat Addresses on the Life of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Told in the Gospels. With an 
Appended Essay on the Virgin Birth of Our Lord. By the 
Rt. Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D,D., Bishop of Vermont. i2mo, 
$1.25. 

" It is often said, and the saying is true, that Protestantism and Anglicanism have 
lost something of sweet Christian tenderness in their extreme reaction from the semi- 
idolatrous cultus of the Blessed Virgin which prevailed in the Middle Ages. We have 
not the slightest tendency to that form of doctrinal aberration ; nor would it be possi- 
ble, we suppose, for any clear-minded Englishman or American to join in the glowing 
but hyperbolical addresses to the Mother of our Lord Which are found in the liturgies 
of Oriental Churches ; yet it does seem that something has been lost in our habitual 
forgetfulness of the human being to whom our blessed Lord in His earthly life was 
nearest and dearest, and who, doubtless, of all the sons and daughters of men, was— 
nay, perhaps still is — nearest and dearest to Him. In this little volume, Bishop Hali 
very admirably and delicately discourses of the Blessed Virgin with the reverent affec- 
tion which is due to her, and yet without the slightest approach to the extravagances 
which our church has rightly and wisely banished. In a brief appendix, he has 
written a few timely words on the subject of the virgin birth of our Lord, considered 
as an article of the "Christian faith." — The Church Standard, Philadelphia. 



CANON SCOTT HOLLAND. 

God's City : Four Addresses delivered at St. Asaph on the 
Spiritual and Ethical Value of Belief in the Church. To 
which are added six sermons on kindred subjects. By the 
Rev. H. S. Holland, M.A., Canon and Precentor of St. 
Paul's. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 

" As to their teaching, we think them to be admirable models of the spirit in which 
instruction concerning the church should be given. . . . The doctrine is both full 
and strong, and is enriched by that wealth of illustration which characterizes all the 
author's writings."— The Churchman, New York. 

"We sometimes wonder why some sermons find their way into print ; but ser- 
mons such as these are in character of an inspiration that not only find their way into 
print, but into the hearts and lives of all who hear or read them." 

—The Living Church, Chicago. 



I 



LONGMANS, GREEN, g C Q.'S RECENT PUBLICA TIONS. 
CANON LIDDON. 
Clerical Life and Work. A Collection of Sermons with 
an Essay on "The Priest in his Inner Life." By the Rev 
Henry Parry Liddon, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L., late Canon 
and Chancellor of St. Paul's. Crown Svo, $2.00. 

v^V^^^Tc^ig %S&S&~ *? th . e ™*r 

the preacher's mind from early life d bee " slowl 5' developing in 

take^olM ^&M rc V ° piniollS tavern, but they 
especially commend to our clerical fri» ds the = " n n °, OT ^V way. We 

Strength of His Ministers Thpklr^fifr, s ? rn °" s 0,1 °«'' Lord's Example the 

.NEW Kozra/^ CANON LIDDON'S LIFE of dr. PUSEY. 

Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey, D.D. By Henry 
Parry Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D. Edited and prepared 
for publication by the Rev. J. O. Johnston, M.A., Vicar of 
All Saints', Oxford, and the Rev. Robert J. Wilson D D 
Warden of Keble College. 4 vols., Svo. With Portraits and 
Illustrations. Vol. I. and II., $9.00 net Vol III 

$4-5° net ' '' 

"Our first feeling in laying down this long expected ' Life of Dr P„<~ w > ;* 
satisfaction that so important a subiert Vmr! %^ iw^ , fusey' is one of 
Dr. Pusey had lived, h£ life would live heel l?o^\l£?E£ h f& ^ wh ^^ 
natural gifts, great also in its powers of devotion . H& e as £ M?^* F t§ 

able commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Dr Liddon ta t^ L?h } ?° St admi T" 
He is at great pains not only to make every name and event fntetli^ g 
ivmg. A sentence in a letter of Dr. Arnold's is a trifle nhl tl F? le l but fresh and 
it. An epoch which in any other hands would have been H n J" foo ^ote explains 
English public, Dr. Pusey's studies in Germany Tb^i^^^^ 1 * to th * 
the freshest chapters in the book. Eichorn TholnS ^w! u Liddon one of 

are living portraits. And yet all this mStofi^Sfe I k S SKI 
You never forget Dr. Pusey. The author is lost in ^^^-^^S^S^ 
4-u " T , he . resuIt proves that it is well worth waitine for Valuable ^ «= fMc , vnr v ix- 
oZTSl from "coni " "* ^T?" "lue for tl^'li^f if throw n P on the 
tafefd Cst^ comnle^Tnri I n^T" 60113 hlSt ? ry and documents. The work is 

Sr. Liddon ^^he Li^gC^rch te " JeCt ' that mark a » the Writings of 



LONGMANS, GREEN, &> CO.'S RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



REV. C. ERNEST SMITH. 

The Old Church in the New Land. Lectures on 
Church History. By the Rev. C. Ernest Smith, M.A., 
Rector of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Balti- 
more, M<±, Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Maryland. 
With a Preface by the Bishop of Maryland. Crown 8vo, 
cloth, $1.25. 

"We heartily endorse the recommendation of the Bishop of Maryland and we 
go further ; we should say that this little book is perhaps the very best historical ac- 
count oi the Church of England for family reading that we have ever seen ; and an at- 
tentive congregation to which these lectures should be read would be well prepared to 
vindicate the position of the Anglican Church against the assaults of either Rome or 
Geneva. It is not a controversial book, but its statements are so plain as to make 
argument superfluous."— The Church Standard. 

" These lectures deserve all the praise we can give them. We strongly recom- 
mend their addition to parish libraries, and their study to teachers, lav readers and to 
not a few of the clergy. They retell the storv of the old church in the new land with 
an accuracy of detail both in fact and doctrine that is refreshing, and with a style as 
vigorous and pointed as it is clear."— The American Church Almanac, 1895. 

" Here is a book for every member of the Brotherhood to own and study." Mr. 
Smith very justly says : ' A knowledge of some of the chief facts in the history of the 
church has become almost a necessity to every churchman, and there are, conse- 
quently, few subjects upon which lecture-sermons* can more appropriately be preached 
in our day than on Church History, especially on the history of our own branch. 
To some persons this may seem a very unedifying kind of a subject ; they prefer what 
is known as " Gospel preaching" ; they have "indeed no interest in any other; and if, 
unfortunately, they are compelled to listen to any other, they imagine there is no help 
in it, and are none the better for it, but rather the worse.' 

" This is all true enough, and when this instruction is given with a clearness 
and freshness that illuminate the subject, it becomes a pleasure as well as a duty to 
receive it. . With a scholarship which is never heavy, with a belief in 'the 

Catholic Church which never descends into mere partisanism, the lectures, in the 
words of the Bishop of Maryland who writes the preface, admirablv fulfill their pur- 
pose 'to trace the links of that continuity (between the Church in America and the 
Church in England) to make churchmen feel sure, through them of an apostolic origin, 
to help them know that this is no late-born sect, but that in it we are in the very 
" fellowship of the Apostles." . . . Make yourself a . . . present of this book, 
read it, digest it, and then lend it as widely as possible among your friends." 

— St. Andrew's Cross. 

"The whole story is told in strong and clear outline, in a very interesting and 
instructive way, and any one who follows the plain teaching in this little volume can- 
not fail to be convinced of the identity of our church with that church which the 
Lord Jesus founded. We wish that every layman would read it, for we are sure he 
would find it full of strength and truth."— The Living Church. 

THE BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1S93. 

Inspiration : Eight Lectures on the Early History 
and Origin of the Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration. 

Being the Bampton Lectures for 1893. By the Rev. W. 
Sanday, M.A., D.D., LL,D., Dean Ireland's Professor of 
Exegesis, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, Preacher at 
Whitehall. 8vo, $4.00. 



LONGMANS^ GREEN, & CO.'S RECENT PUBLICA TIONS. 



ABBfi FOUARD. 

Saint Paul and his Missions. By the Abbe Constant 
Fouard. Translated with the Author's sanction and co- 
operation by the Rev. George F. X. Griffith. With 2 Maps. 
Small 8vo, cloth, gilt top, $2.00. 

t> ," T r£ WO £ k may not have the breadth °f learning which one finds in the 'St 
Paul of Conybeare and Howson ; it certainly has not the buoyancy of Archdeacon 
Farrar s work on the same subject ; it makes no pretension to the minute accuracy of 
Lewin ; but it is a very admirable work, for all that, and to the average reader it will 
be even more instructive than its predecessors. Its author, of course, is a clergyman 
of the Roman Catholic Church ; but his candor is above all praise, and his account of 
the church m apostolic days is absolutely faithful to historical fact. Indeed we find 
that he explicitly states facts which writers in our own church would hesitate to affirm 
The candor and simplicity which we find everywhere in the historical treatment 
of our author's subject we find not less striking when he deals with doctrine ■ and 
m his discussion of the Epistle to the Romans, his treatment of justification by' faith 
is so thoroughly Scriptural that one cannot help wondering at the wearisome scho- 
lastic logomachy which, in the sixteenth century, so needlessly obscured the plain 
teacmng of the Word of God. Taking it all in all, we have nothing but commendation 
for the Abbe Fouard s ' St. Paul.' "-The Church Standard. 

PrfJr^H th^wi - v ty Wel ?Zu e - to this new book of the Abb6 Fouard's. His 'Saint 
who havl S ,^ 0f Christianity ' will have raised the expectations of students 
who have known it, but we think that even they will be hardly prepared for so 

M^r^vS^^H b0 ° k aS - thiS ° f th / Hfe ° f St " Paul - With snXgood wo k 
scarce ^ S tn l^ U ™ s ™>Lewm and Archdeacon Farrar, the EngHsh scholar 
true th.t t&rP t , Z ll QSh treatment of so well worn a theme. But whilst it is 
i^rf^t^w1vL£ 0t T-°^ that 13 new ' the settin - and Presentation of St. Pauls life 
all thai co or nH ]1 The des . cri P*ons of his journeys are given with 

Hon ; W , £fc 1^ Fr i ! M 1 r artlsts - ive to their landscapes, and long quota- 

tions from his letters are quite skillfully interwoven into the text, so that we feel that 
we Know St. Paul better than we did before we took up the Abbe's work 
An J he ^ a f e good maps, a full index, and an abundant supply of notes and refer- 
ences. We have had no opportunity of comparing the translation with the original 
U S n f y ^ V!tf minently readable. On the whole, we believe there are few 
than 3 t°h f ^^I^^^gS??=5B^ i S«^^ m find and helpful 

pn^ft^ '^pSffiSS? 
has been fortunate in his translator, who has succeeded in carrying ove into his English 
rendering much of the vivacious and eloquent perspicuity of the SriSna ^French w?rk 
tfS tZ7™t«*% work in this volume with great freedom. He ouches 

whoM h is own °rKf i°, C - tnne Str 2 ngl & and Proclaims them with an enthusiasm 
wnoxl} his own. The translation enriches English theology with a volume catholi- 

i" S^J^feSiSr merits in the original form have beeii 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

' The Christ, the Son of God.' A Life of Our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. With an Introduction by Cardinal 
Manning. 2 vols., small 8vo, cloth, gilt top, with 3 Maps, 
$4.00. 

St. Peter and the First Years of Christianity. With an 
Introduction by Cardinal Gibbons. With 3 Maps. Small 
8vo, cloth, gilt top, $2,00. 

4 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO:S RECENT PUBLICA TIONS. 



THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES, 1894. 

The Permanent Value of the Book of Genesis as an 

Integral Part of the Christian Revelation. By the Rev. 
C. W. E. Body, M.A., D.C.L., Professor of Old Testament 
Literature and Interpretation in the General Theological 
Seminary, New York ; Sometime Provost of Trinity Col- 
lege, Toronto, and Fellow of St, John's College, Cam- 
bridge. Crown 8vo, $1.50. 

"No greater service could have been rendered at this time to the average body 
of the church clergy than these four lectures by Prof. Body. Within the limited 
space restricted to the Paddock Lectures he has managed to give a comprehensive 
review of the so-called Higher Criticism, its history and principal authors, the various 
theories and conclusions of its literary analysis of the Old Testament, bringing to the 
front its unresolved problems, and philosophic or logical objections that are fatal to 
its assumptions, and, above ail, bringing out that moral and spiritual character and 
purpose which stamps the Biblia Sacra as a Revelation from God for the behoof of 
man, but which mere perfunctory critical scholarship as completely misses, as the 
science of botanv would do that confined itself to mere dried leaves, stamens, and 
pistils, and details of classification, without leading to the consideration of properties 
and uses, relation to pharmacopeia, commercial value, or benefit to mankind. Any 
Christian will be delighted with the incidental replies to Dr. Briggs, and the masterly 
expose of critical fallacies among German writers, especially the final discrediting of 
the presumptuous and utterly groundless dogmatism of such writers of the extreme 
school of Kuenen and Wellhausen. 

The fourth lecture on Creation and Paradise, and the fifth on the Deluge and 
the Patriarchs are intensely interesting, and show how Prof. Sayce and the Monuments 
of Archaeology are rapidly'making short work of much of the learned ignorance of the 
Higher Criticisms. There are several interesting appendices." 

—The Church Eclectic, Utica, X. Y. 



THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES, 1892. 

The Sacramental System Considered as the Extension 
of the Incarnation. By Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., 
Rector of Trinity Church, New York. Crown 8vo, 260 
pages, $1.50. 

" We have been always hoping that the church of these scientific days might be 
able to show how deeplv grounded the sacramental system is in nature, and the first 
of these lectures leads us to feel that we shall not be disappointed. Dr. Dix . 
shows what the teaching of the church respecting nature has been ; . . . what the 
remedial and restorative effect of the Incarnation in nature may be. . . . It is im- 
possible in the short space of a review to do justice to the argument in these two first 
chapters, which we feel to be of great importance in these days."— The Churchman. 

" Presented, as it is in these pages, in a fresh and lively way. in clear and per- 
suasive argument, it touches the soul, excites the imagination, and deepens one's faith 
. . . The treatment is scholarly and philosophical, the discussion logical and con- 
clusive, the stvle clear and calm, and the volume is timely and helpful." 

—The Living Church. 

"It is most gratifying to have Dr. Dix's lectures on the sacramental system in 
permanent and available form. The volume will prove a valuable addition to the 
religious literature, not of the day only, but of the age. . . . The logical arrange- 
ment of the material is admirable', and the diction at once stately and precise." 

—St. Andrew's Cross. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, &> CO.'S RECENT PUBLICA TIONS. 



THE DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
Studies in the Christian Character. Sermons with an 
Introductory Essay. By Francis Paget, D.D., Dean of 
Christ Church, Oxford ; Sometime Vicar of Broms^rove 
Crown 8vo, $1.75. 

CANON BRIGHT. 
Waymarks in Church History. By the Rev. William 
Bright, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, and Regius Pro- 
fessor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford 
Crown 8vo, $2.00. 

instance are fresh and strong and S°''-bS Herald ^ Ske ' CheS m evel "y 

— The Churchman. 

BY THE SAME A UTHOR. 

Faith and Life. Readings for the Greater Holy Days, 
and the Sundays from Advent to Trinity. Compiled from 
Ancient Writers. Second Edition. Small Svo, $1.75. 

Morality in Doctrine. Sermons. Small 8vo, $2.00. 

Lessons from the Lives of Three Great Fathers: 

St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine. With 

Appendices. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 

Ac e? ! h fJ ectUres ' as th ? ir indicates, are rather anecdotical than biographical 
students oflheFaHfef/Vr' WiH d ° UbtleSS ¥ P readers that are not 
^^^^^^1^^^^ ° f the Characters and —ices of the 

The Incarnation as a Motive Power. Sermons. Second 
Edition. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, cV CO.'S RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



REV. HERBERT BRANSTON GRAY. 

"Men of Like Passions": Being Characters of some 
Bible Heroes and Other Sermons. Preached to Bradfield 
Boys. By the Rev. Herbert Branston Gray, D.D., 
Warden of Bradfield College, Berks. Crown 8vo, $1.75. 

"The first thing that strikes the reader of these sermons will assuredly be their 
fitness for their purpose. . . . The sermons are partly sermons on the saints of 
the Prayer Book and partly on some of the Old Testament characters, with one or 
two occasional commemorative discourses. All are brief, pointed, and thoughtful, 
and we can assure our readers that they are well worth the study of much older 
and more instructed hearers than those for whom they are prepared." 

— The Churchman. 

11 The}' are manly in tone, earnest in spirit, and must have been very interesting 
to listen to. Like a master bowman he cleans the mark he aims at, and under such 
teaching the boys of Bradfield ought to develop into manly men. They may be read 
with advantage by anybody, but every one who has to do with boys, parents as well as 
teachers, would find very much that is helpful and profitable." — Pacific Churchman. 



REV. A. J. HARRISON. 

The Repose of Faith: In View of Present-Day Diffi- 
culties, By the Rev. Alexander J. Harrison, B.D., 
Vicar of Lightcliffe, Evidential Missioner of the Church 
Parochial Mission Society, and Lecturer of the Christian 
Evidence Society, Boyle Lecturer, 1892, etc. Crown 8vo, 
$2.00. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

Problems of Christianity and Scepticism. Lessons 
from Twenty Years' Experience in the Field of Christian 
Evidence. Crown 8vo, $2.25. 

" So wise and practical a volume as this cannot fail to do great good. . . . The 
style of the book is popular throughout. . . . The third book is a summary of 
lessons drawn from his own histor\\ It describes the work he has done in the line 
of the subject of the volume, a work which has been his specialty for a long time, and 
considers all practical matters suggested at one or another point. The whole volume, 
and this portion of it in particular, will be found serviceable by all who have oppor- 
tunities of influencing those of a sceptical frame of mind. We commend the work to 
Christians also, not merely for its valuable statements of their views of truth, but 
quite as much because of its importance as an example of good sense, courtesy, and 
tact in religious argument." — The Congregationalist. 

The Church in Relation to Sceptics. A Conversa- 
tional Guide to Evidential Work. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 

"Mr. Harrison has had many years' practical experience in the work to which 
this may be regarded as a hand-book, and an extremely good one it is. . . . The 
book is a most helpful one, and every one engaged in pastoral work would find it an 
invaluable help."— Pacific Churchman. 

7 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S RECENT PUBLIC A TLONS. 
DEAN LUCKOCK. 

The History of Marriage, Jewish and Christian, 

in Relation to Divorce and Certain Forbidden Degrees. 
By the Rev. Herbert Mortimer Luckock, D.D., Dean 
of Lichfield. Crown 8vo, $1.75. 

"J hiS volui 5 e is f * l \ of original and patient research, characterized bv broad hi* 
toncal grasp and ample learning, and written in a pleasant and agreeable style/ ' 

—The Living Church. 

CANON MACCOLL. 
Life Here and Hereafter. Sermons. By the Rev. 
Malcolm Maccoll, M.A., Canon Residentiary of Ripon! 
Crown 8vo, $2.25. 

CANON NEWBOLT, 

Speculum Sacerdotum ; or, The Divine Model of the 
Priestly Life. By the Rev. W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A., 
Canon and Chancellor of St. Paul's. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 

T MrW* Jwlt nothin & £ ut ? raise f° r this beautiful collection of addresses which Dr. 
adforb4 n nftf ha \ t0 US ? hlS ° Wn m ° deSt P hrase ' ' submitted to the kindness 
nffht o^Ji • S f ° S f W r°; se ! lves are a constant exposition of the inspired words 
of the apostle in the ranks of the Anglican clergy. . . f> The author knows whereof 
^cSP^AWiS 8 ^ T, ery W ° rd l ells We know of no^oSk^ha'wouldg^ 
ahmit tn £ £i • % cler S}\ as . t hl ~ s ' no »e that would be so suitable as a gift to those 
ft n J?J?Zf Z * m ? d °" ^ nnity . Sunday. Such encouragement and warning given at 
the outset of a man's ministry might change and uplift it." 

—The Churchman, New York. 

so full^f SjJS? a great P^^ 1 such a book as this, so freighted with instruction, 
out under ftYti^'^ S raCef ^ m expression so gracious in spirit, should be sen 
out under a title which implies that it is intended for the clergy only. There is a com- 

vr^tiy^n^r^ -7 g S tMt e r ery ,^ er ^ man ™hS reads* it will be likel^To 
preacn it over and over again to the people of his charge." 

—The Church Standard, Philadelphia. 
iU "' 1I1 * A bo ° k whicn every clergyman ought to read and re-read till he has 
£teTffr & the texture of his being! 1 Candi- 

of it Th?w£v • • S ' i nd K he y° un S^ clergy especially, should make a special study 
01 it. The book is invaluable. . . ."—Pacific Churchman. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

Counsels of Faith and Practice : Being Sermons Preached 
on Various Occasions. New and Enlarged Edition. Crown 
8vo, $1.50. 

5n l^S^L m ? n are cr I mg ou * for . is not so much intellectual as spiritual wisdom ; not 
this T£h \«Jh gY a H 6 a PP llc ?; tlon of Geology to their own spiritual needs. And 
FSt^d Pr^n^ V ? et b £ th ° Se Strong ' thou 2 htful > and stimulating ' Counsels of 
r aim ana practice. —The Churchman. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



CANON T. T. CARTER. 

Nicholas Ferrar : His Household and his Friends. Edited 
by the Rev. T. T. Carter, M.A., Hon. Canon of Christ 
Church, Oxford. With Portrait engraved after a picture 
by Cornelius Janssen at Magdalene College, Cambridge. 
Crown 8vo, $1.75. 

" The little volume before us is a real boon to the church. It might well be made 
a part of the Lent reading of those who would know what types of saintliness, after 
the ancient model, the Anglican Church has been able to produce."— Living Church. 



BISHOP COPLBSTON. 

Buddhism, Primitive and Present ; in Magadha and 
Ceylon. By Reginald Stephen Copleston, D.D., 
Bishop of Colombo, President of the Ceylon Branch of 
the Royal Asiatic Society. 8vo, $5.00. 

"Notwithstanding the numerous works on Buddhism recently issued, there was 
room for a book which, neglecting the side-growths, should undertake to give a con- 
tinuous history of the primitive faith of Gotama. This task Bishop Copleston has 
performed with excellent judgment and skill."— The Nation, New York. 



REV. WYLLYS REDE, M.A. 

The Communion of Saints. By the Rev. Wyllys Rede, 
M.A., Rector of Emmanuel Church, Rockford, Illinois. 
With a Preface by Lord Halifax. Crown 8vo, $1.25. 

"The substance of this book was delivered in a course of lectures at St. Mark's, 
Evanston, 111., during the Lent of 1892. There is an introduction by Lord Halifax, 
President of the English Church Union, which is in itself a clear statement of the doc- 
trine which Mr. Rede expounds in the book. But we do not agree with the assertion 
on the title-page that it is a 'Lost Link in the Church's Creed.' Whatever obscura- 
tion it suffered in past days, it has now emerged from into the very forefront of church 
teaching. However, if this was one of the motives which led to the production of the 
book, we are disposed to rejoice in the assumption to which we are indebted for a 
very clever and sympathetic work. The leading idea of the book is the permanence 
of relationships in the Body of Christ, which is His Church, and the Communion or 
Saints. 

There is a chapter on ' Pravers for the Dead,' which puts that matter in a very 
clear and reasonable light. The book is valuable as a clear exposition ot the teaching 
of the church concerning the fellowship, the brotherhood which in her mind exists 
between all who are baptized into the Church of Christ, whether living or departed. 
And it will be found no less valuable as affording the truest and most emcacious con- 
solation to all the sad company of those who grieve because their friends are not 
One turns awav with almost angry impatience from the wearisome commonplaces with 
which many good people seek to bind up the breaking heart— for they act like salt 
upon a raw wound. It is only in the truth that all are one in Christ, the doctrine ot 
the Communion of Saints, that any healing for such sorrow resides. Therefore, bom 
on this account and for the clear statement of this doctrine, the book is a very valua- 
ble one, and deserves to be not only widely read by church people, but carefully 
digested."— Pacific Churchman. 



9 



LONGMAN^, GREEK, &> CO.'S RECENT PUBLICA TIONS. 



The Inheritance of the Saints ; or, Thoughts on the 
Communion of Saints and the Life of the World to Com* 
Collected chiefly from English Writers by L P With a 
Preface by the Rev. H. Scott Holland, M.A, Canon and 
Precentor of St. Paul's. Crown Svo, §2 00 

relation to the City and Kingdom of God/ -The IndLe.xdext ° WU 
" Though this admirable volume is a compilation of the thoughts nfWWo ■* ■« 
be as widely read, we believe, as though it were the original wort nf ;Z l 61S 11 Wl11 
book is well arranged, the subjects loathe most part to" > us^t^ H^^ 01 ; The 

Verba Verbi Dei: The Words of Our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. Harmonized by the Author of -Charles 
Lowder." With an Introduction on the Different Periods 
m Our Lord's Life on Earth. Crown Svo, $1,50. 

ofour^ri^ at hand! It contains the words 

words than His. Even apostS and n7™££ CareS t0 read or think of no other 
m the words of Saint Tho^a\Sni?^fhi 1 ? , f^ s , om f trm ^ be properly included 
Thou alone to me.' The wo"rds are ^rrVn f tne d ° Ct0rS hold their P eace I s P^k 
words of our Saviour as a child at Kni ^m UC ^ e J S - Ve + E er l. ods ' in S iudin § d) the 
beginning of his ministry • h) during w * firS ^?Vr - ln - the tem P tatl on ; 2) at the 

a s ^fe^Sil^^r^ s sarins* 

Paul. Wehearttycon^^ St. 

will assuredly give it a vervfr-h nfe ^ ? ° the ifwjwwff z^a of our Lord, 
/a 3 m & n pia^e among Dooks of that class." 

—The Churchman. 

REV. G. R. PRYNNE. 

The Truth and Reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, 
Proved from Holy Scripture, the Teaching- of the Primitive 
Church, and the Book of Common Prayer. By George 
Ruxdle Prvxxe, M.A., Vicar of St. Peter's, Plymouth; 
Author of "The Eucharistic Manual," etc. Crown Svo 
$1.25. . 

^pli^tfr^fZ^J^e Mr - P ?™? s bc ? k is Wef and read- 
wh,ch have been adduced by leaned divTnes n snn^^^ f *? tS a J> d arguments 
Eucharistic Sacrifice."— The Churchman su PP ort <* the truth and reality of the 



LONGMANS, GREEN, cV CO.'S RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



REV. RICHARD W. HILEY, D.D. 

A Year's Sermons. Based upon some of the Scriptures 
appointed for each Sunday Morning. By the Rev. 
Richard W. Hiley, D.D., of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, Vicar 
of Wighill, Tadcaster, Yorkshire. In two volumes. Vol. I., 
January— June. Vol. IT., July— December. Crown 8vo, 
each, $2.00. 

c " Very plain, practical sermons, which it is at once a pleasure and a profit to read. 
I noroughly evangelistic, they are yet eminently adapted to the needs and cares of the 
every-day man."— The Churchman, 

THE ORACLES OF PAPIAS. 

The Oracles Ascribed to Matthew by Papias of Hier- 

apolis : A Contribution to the Criticism of the New Testa- 
ment. With Appendices on the Authorship of the De Vita 
Contemplativa, the Date of the Crucifixion, and the Date 
of the Martyrdom of Polycarp. Crown 8vo, $2.co. 

CANON AND MRS. S. A. BARNETT. 

Practicable Socialism : Essays on Social Reform. By the 
Rev. Canon and Mrs. S. A. Barnett. New and Enlarged 
Edition. Crown Svo, $1.50. 

" These papers are really practical and helpful in their suggestions to people who 
want to do something to help the poor." — Scotsman. 

"In republishing these essays it is not too much to say that the authors have made 
society deeply their debtors. . . . Every social reformer will be the better for the 
perusal of this book." — Daily Telegraph. 

" It is a very practical and admirable work and still timely and appropriate. We 
value this volume the more highly because while quite as practical and suggestive as 
any other, it is pervaded by a decided and helpful Christian spirit and tone." 

— Boston Congregationalism 

REV. F. W. PULLER, M.A. 

The Primitive Saints and the See of Rome. By 

F. W. Puller, M.A., Mission Priest of the Society of St. 
John the Evangelist, Cowley, Oxford. Crown 8vo, $2.25. 

" Our earnest recommendation of this book can be best emphasized bv the eulogy 
which the Bishop of Lincoln pronounces— and no one could be fitter to pronounce it 
—on the brilliancy of the Christian spirit which runs through it all.' " 

{< —Guardian, London. 

An excellent compendium for American churchmen now, when the Roman 
question has taken a new turn in this country ... no one can afford to despise 
a carefully digested manual like this."— The Churchman, New York. 

II 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.'S RECENT PUBLICA TIONS. 



NEW BOOK BY A. K. H. B. 
St. Andrews and Elsewhere : Glimpses of Some Gone 
and of Things Left. By A. K. H. Boyd, D.D LL D 
First Minister of St. Andrews ; Author of « Recreations of 
a Country Parson," << Twenty-five Years of St. Andrews" 
etc. 8vo, $4.00. 

. ? h Ju y°?H m . e has ° n e serious fault. It is too full of srood stories tu„ 
T^^V^^^^ the -thor^^lfTaWa -source 
, " In the present book will be found a series of reminiscences of Dean StatiW 

aSS^-^^^^S^ There are ^y of°Lll^& 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

Twenty-five Years of St. Andrews, 1865 to 1890. 

2 vols., 8vo. Vol. I. 1867-1878, $3,00. Vol. II. 1878- 
1890, $3.00. 

nr p J^ 86 re ™ { ™ cenc % s , are so un }^ that one can hardly place them. Thev present 
Dr. Boyd s social life and, to some degree, his personality in a very strong light Thev 
contain something characteristic of nearly everybody. The pages are full of brieht 
and entertaining matter. . . . We are certain that not since Boswell's ' Life of 
been written * entertainin S book of notable sketches and conversations 

These volumes will have a permanent interest for all who have a desire to know 
something about many of the most notable persons in England and Scotland during 
the last hah of the nineteenth century."— The Outlook. - 

REV. H. E. HALL, M. A. 

Manual of Christian Doctrine. Chiefly intended for 
Confirmation Classes. By the Rev. H. E. Hall, M.A., 
Vicar of S. Benet and All Saints', Kentish Town, N.W. ; 
Author of " Leadership not Lordship," "The Ritualists and 
the Reformation." With a Preface by the Rev. W. H. 
Hutchings, M.A., Rector of Kirby Misperton, and Rural 
Dean. Fcap. 8vo, 80 pages, 30 cents. 

This manual aims at helping the teacher as well as the taught, and is therefore 
of a more distinctly theological character than many of a similar kind that are already 
in existence. 

The author interprets the Prayer Book in the light of Catholic Truth, taking 
antiquity and not novelty for his guide. He adheres to the traditional teaching of 
Western Christendom, and is careful, in exalting the gift of Confirmation, not to 
depreciate that of Baptism. He is alive, too, to the practical advantage of separating 
the period of life for the reception of Confirmation from that of the initial Sacrament, 
in order that fresh grace and strength may be vouchsafed to the young, just before 
they have to meet new temptations and to go forth into the world. 

Although the manual is especially intended as a help in giving Confirmation 
classes, much of it may have a wider use, either as the basis of a series of instructions, 
or for catechising in church and in the schools. 

12 



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